χάος chaos
by KibaKibbles
Summary: After 2 years of training, Sadie, Carter, and their followers have to stop the chaos that has consumed the House of Life and is spreading. Currently Rewriting this story as of March 2012.
1. Chapter 1

**Note: **If the summary seemed familiar that's because it is. I'm redoing my old story, Chaos. Some aspects are the same, but enough is different where you might want to read it again to understand. I'm doing this because my last story was too confusing, the characters got out of character really fast, and I was making some marysues which I hated. So I'm trying to redo that, and reviews warning me if I am are appreciated.

**Warnings:** If you hate Original Characters than this probably isn't your type of story. I'm trying to keep them as un-marysueish as possible but sometimes people just hate original characters...

**Summary:** After two years of training Sadie, Carter, and their followers have to stop the chaos that has consumed the House of Life and is spreading. Riots have broken out across Egypt as Apophis grows more powerful. Through the chaos they discover they must either unite or fight against the Greeks. But first the Kanes have to deal with school and the troubles that come with it.

Takes place 1 year after The Lost Hero and 2 years after Red Pyramid. It's also AU. So note:

**- Sadie and Carter have discovered recruits (Felix, Cleo, Jazz, etc...)**

**- No Walt (not biased, he just didn't fit in when I made the story)**

**- Desjardin is still the head proctor**

**- Amos and the rest of the Kanes are still in hiding**

**- Zia was not hidden in a tomb by Iskandar, and for cannon sake Nephthys abandoned her body long ago**

**- Ra has not been freed yet**

**NOTE:** My story is not going to be in first person like the books. It'll be in third person throughout but changing perspectives in some chapters from Sadie (main POV), Carter, Nico and Percy.

And after that long intro, that you probably skipped over, here's the story!

* * *

**Chapter 1: A Brief History Lesson on Why We Are Screwed and a not so Terrible First Day of School**

Two long years had passed since the Kane siblings first discovered the hidden world of the Ancient Egyptians. The siblings had spent most of the years training recruits that stumbled upon the signal they put in Cleopatra's Needle. The Kanes had trained 40 kids and teens that had ran away from their homes or were living on the streets. All the training was in hope that one day they could destroy Apophis, that day seeming to come sooner than later with the recent news reports they were watching on television.

Carter, who was now 16, sat on the couch in the spacious living room at Amos's mansion. He was watching the breaking news reports on CNN with a worried expression on his face. Carter had grown significantly the past two years. Due to the constant training and secret missions that involved a lot of explosions and scary monsters, he developed a lot of muscles.

He also developed his own sense of style, without his father's pressures and with a bit of Sadie's help he managed to find a comfortable style to express himself. He kept his curly hair cropped short. His favorite outfit was his navy blue form fitting t-shirt, which was cotton of course, and black loose fitting cotton skinny jeans (which were very hard to find). He especially adored his Nike high-tops, which were neon orange and green. Sadie's friends thought he was "hot," much to Sadie's disgust.

"I don't like this at all," Sadie said as she was sprawled out on the floor in front of the TV frowning at the news.

Sadie had also grown during the past few years. At 14 years of age she had developed a more confident aura about herself. She still liked dyeing her hair though, currently it was dyed a deep magenta. Much to the annoyance of Carter and Amos she also wore non-cotton clothing because of the serious damage it was doing to her styling choices.

"Amos did you see this?" Carter yelled to his Uncle that was in the next room.

Amos walked into the living room and sat on the couch next to Carter.

"_Riots and protests have begun in Egypt demanding for a change in government. Looters have begun to spring up, the army is trying to protect the National Museum from getting looted," _said the news reporter on CNN.

"Woah, this is all crazy? What if they steal all the Egyptian artifacts Amos?" asked Sadie.

Amos shifted nervously as he continued to watch the live coverage showing fires erupting and people being killed by the police, "That's not the issue right now. The House of Magic has people protecting it. The real issue is what is going to happen to the future of Egypt. This is clearly Apophis stirring up things. Even more worryingly I received a message from Desjardins,"

"Has he changed his mind about killing us?" Carter asked cringing at the memory of the man who had the potential to make their lives miserable.

"No, worse news. He is losing control of the situation. Egypt will certainly fall, the people need a leader. Apophis is summoning ancient Egyptian monsters and is even starting to stir up the monsters of the other gods."

"You mean the Greeks?" Sadie questioned. Both Carter and Sadie eventually learned about how the Greeks got the west side of New York and the Egyptians got the east side. Due to squabbles in the past, and the dismay the House of Life showed to the Greek gods the two remained separate. The magicians learned to stay away from anything Greek and vice versa, so it was odd knowing that Greek monsters were also beginning to attack.

"Yes, the Greek monsters. There are a lot of Greek monsters that we should be afraid of. It's really getting bad if Apophis is resorting to this. At this rate the Greeks will have to acknowledge us again, and the House of Life them," Amos said to the two siblings who were now engrossed with what they were learning.

"You mean we fight together?" asked Sadie, "That'd be awesome!"

"More fighting? After everything that happened two years ago? Although we've been training for this, I still would rather have peace than fighting," Carter said reminiscing in his head about how their lives were so drastically different. If it weren't for all the fighting in the past he would still have a mother and father.

"The Greeks will try to stay out of it as much as they can. And Desjardins is still as reluctant as ever to accept our own gods, he has even more disdain towards the Greeks because of the Romans." Amos explained.

"Romans? What do the Greeks have to do with that?" asked Sadie.

"Haven't you read any of the books we gave you," Carter scolded, "we gave them to you so you would understand the history. This history is very important, the past is the key to the future."

"Yea, yea wise boy," Sadie grumbled. She had mainly skimmed the thousands of pages of history that she was assigned to read. She didn't think it was fair that Carter had the chance to learn things hands-on with their dad while she had to stick to reading boring books.

"I'll explain to Sadie, "Amos said trying to ease the tension between the two," You know about how the Greeks set up their own Pharaoh in Egypt, the Ptolemies?"

Sadie nodded in response and Amos continued, "The Greeks ruled for hundreds of years but they still allowed the Egyptians to worship their own gods. The Egyptian people treated the Greek Pharaohs no differently than the other Pharaohs because the Ptolemies swore their allegiance to the Egyptian gods. At this time the Greek gods and Egyptian gods were on good terms, they even intermingled."

"Yea, Thoth mentioned he was mistaken for Hermes," Sadie said piecing things together.

Amos nodded, "Right, I heard Thoth was a bit peeved about that too. The Egyptian gods and the Greek gods got along great. That was until the war in Greece split Greece up. One of the goddess Aphrodite's children founded a civilization called Rome. Their society became a mixture of all the cultures around the Mediterranean. They even adopted the Greek gods as their own, but with a twist.

The Greek gods changed names but with the same basic principle. Zeus became Jupiter, Hera became Juno, and so on. Along with the name change was an attitude change. They became more militaristic, they hungered for world conquest. They saw the world as theirs."

"And they wanted Egypt," Carter said with a scowl on his face.

"Precisely, they began to colonize Egypt. At this time the rulers were Ptolemy XIV and Cleopatra VII. They were just children really. Cleopatra was 18, Ptolemy only 10. They attempted to resist the Romans but were failing. Cleopatra who was hosting Isis loved Egypt, she was the first queen from the Ptolemic family to even speak the Egyptian language. However she fell in love with two Romans."

"I remember this! It was Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony," said Sadie, proud that she remembered something from those books.

"Marc Antony, offspring of Hercules," Amos said chuckling at her enthusiasm, "She and Julius Caesar had a child named Ptolemy Caesarion and with Marc Antony twins. A girl named Cleopatra Selene and a boy named Alexander Helios."

"Like the sun and moon," Carter remarked.  
"Aww that's cute," Sadie said standing up from her spot on the floor to pat her brother on his curly hair.

Carter smacked her hand away scowling at his little sister, "Anyways, continue with the story Amos."

"Cleopatra, the older one, lived in Rome for a few years but still owed her loyalty to Egypt. When the Romans decided they wanted total control of Egypt she was devastated. She didn't want her children to lose their homeland and right to the throne. After a particular devastating battle Marc Antony, her lover at the time, believed she was dead and killed himself. In her despair, upon realizing that she was losing her homeland and now the person she loved the most, she killed herself with a cobra."

Upon hearing the end both Carter and Sadie had sad expressions on their faces.

"What about her children?" Sadie questioned her uncle.

"Caessarion was killed after he tried to claim his throne, he had tried to summon Ra to no avail. He believed that he was the rightful host for Ra. The twins were sent to live in Rome. The two separated, Alexander Helios was never heard of again. Cleopatra Selene married a king and had two children."

"At least it's not a completely sad ending," Sadie mumbled, depressed at how the story turned out.

"It was a sad ending for Egypt. Egypt never became what it once was again. The House of Life turned against the Egyptian gods for sitting through everything and not helping. "Carter explained to his sister with a frown on his face.

"That is why the House of Life cursed the Egyptian gods and never want their help. They even believe that the Egyptian gods arranged for this to happen with the Greeks." Amos explained.

"Why would they arrange for their own demise?" Sadie questioned.

"That's where things get a little murky. I don't know why the gods didn't help. We could only ask them. Anyways , the point is things are a mess in Egypt. If the situation doesn't clear up we could even have a war against the Greeks and Romans. Especially if the Greek monsters start to escalate their attacks on the magicians."

"We're in deep crap," Carter said sighing at the huge mess that he knew him and his sister would have to fix.

Sadie nodded in agreement and a tiny grin broke out on her face, "So when are we going to Egypt?"

"Egypt? No, no, you're going to school. You remember it's going to be your first day of high school soon Sadie. Aren't you excited?" Amos said amusingly to his niece.

Sadie gasped in surprise and rose to her feet glaring at her uncle, "Wait, you mean you're going to tell us all of that only to have us do nothing?"

Carter who was still sitting on the couch looked up at his uncle confused, "Don't you think we should move on things?"

Amos sighed and ran his hand over his head nervously, "You guys, I promised your dad I'd have you in school, he's already mad I've let you stay out for two years. I'm more afraid of him than some monsters. Besides there's really not much we could do now, this is something we have to let the House of Life figure out."

Sadie groaned in frustration, "Common Amos! I don't want to go to high school. Me and Carter can help somehow!"

Amos shook his head, "No, you both have to go school. If the situation gets worse though I will arrange for you to take off for a while. No compromising."

* * *

Days passed and it was finally the long bitterly awaited first day of school.

Carter was nervous to begin his first day of school since he was in 3rd grade. On his trips with dad he was homeschooled, or as he liked to call it, airplane-schooled. Now he would be starting school as a Junior at The Beacon School in upper Manhattan.

While Carter was also nervous about leaving the situation in Egypt alone, he mainly missed Zia. He hadn't seen her since the fight against Set two years before. He knew from Amos that she was still with the House of Life, her secret unknown to Desjardins and the others. Carter really wanted to see her but with everything going on he knew that was impossible.

Carter grabbed his backpack and lunch that Khufu packed, everything inside started with the letter "C." Cheetoes, Cheese cake, and Chile. The oddest lunch combination.

"Thanks for the food Khufu," Carter said giving the baboon a small nod. Khufu just motioned towards the basketball and gave him a challenging look. Carter still got swept by Khufu whenever they played basketball.

"Sadie are you ready? We're going to be late!" Carter called out towards his sister's room.

Sadie was just finishing putting on her outfit, a plaid form fitting shirt with her usual jeans and military boots. For the special occasion of school she dyed her blonde hair with black and red streaks.

"This is going to be a disaster," grumbled Sadie as she looked at herself in the mirror. She was very nervous about starting her first year in high school in a completely different country than England. She heard her brother screaming at her from the kitchen and grabbed her backpack and screamed at him to shut up.

Amos met them in the living room, "Everyone excited!" He said enthusiastically only to be met with groans.

"Excited for this day to end," Sadie muttered.

"Well I have a surprise for both of you," Amos smiled and led them outside where the siblings were greeted by hugs from an old friend.

"BAST!" They both shouted as they hugged the cat goddess. Bast had been on a mission involving a few recruits whom she had to help return to their homes. Felix, the loveable 9-year old, wanted to go home and Cleo from Rio was also feeling homesick. Their house for the first time in a while, was only occupied by Carter, Sadie and Amos (on the days he wasn't in Egypt).

"Well I couldn't let you go to school on your first day alone," Bast said smiling as they pulled out of the hug.

"How were Felix and Cleo, did they make it home safely?" Carter asked.

"Yup, ran into a few monsters though. Greek ones, a bit odd and challenging, I'm not used to fighting them."

After talking for a bit they reluctantly headed to the car Bast was going to drop them off in. It was a sleek black Mercedes Benz, a bit flashy for a trip to school but they were used to living in style having lived in a mansion for 2 years. The trip to school only took five minutes thanks to Bast's crazy driving. "Have fun at school you guys, and stay out of trouble!" Bast said before she sped away, leaving the two siblings alone on the sidewalk in front of the school.

"Well I guess this is it," Carter said to Sadie as they observed their prison.

"Yeah, well I guess I should go, I have to figure out where room 304 is," Sadie grumbled and walked towards her class.

It took her 15 minutes to find the room, making her 5 minutes late. Sadie groaned as she opened the door, she'd rather be stuck in bird form again or having to listen to one of Jazz's lectures on all of the terrible diseases in the world.

Sadie walked in the room with all eyes on her. I guess she did look a little odd with her streaked hair and military boots. Glaring at them she approached the fat and balding teacher who motioned for her to take a seat next to a dark haired boy who was wearing all black and sulking.

After introductions from the teacher the teacher made them go around stating their name and an interesting fact about themselves. Sadie was already bored and wondering how she was going to get through the day. She was used to the freedom of doing whatever she wanted and running around on all sorts of adventures. Not being stuck in a classroom.

"My name is Nico di Angelo, and I'm pretty good with a sword," said the dark haired boy sitting next to Sadie interrupting her thoughts.

He looked kind of cute, not as cute as Anubis but attractive in his own way. He was a little taller than herself and had medium length dark black hair and intense brown eyes. He was wearing a skull and cross bones t-shirt with dark gray jeans, ans surprisingly, military boots similar to her own. His apparel alone put him up a few notches in the book of, "All the guys Sadie's ever had a crush on."

"And you are," her teacher said interrupting her from her staring.

Sadie's face was completely red as she stood up, "Oh, erm, hi!" The class giggled and Sadie thought she would die on the spot – this was definitely worse than that time she'd nearly been killed by a Sphinx.

"My name is Sadie Kane. I'm originally from L.A. but I lived in England for most of my life."

Sadie quickly sat down and glanced at Nico who was observing her with his intense eyes. Sadie blushed and quickly looked away.

"Hi, I'm Lex and I'm originally from Alexandria. That's in Egypt," said a tall lanky boy with very tan skin, dark curly brown hair, a long sharp nose, and bright blue eyes. While he was not exactly Sadie's type, she couldn't help but appreciate how attractive he was. He was like polar opposites with Nico though.

"I'm Leo and I like mango popsicles," said a very pretty girl who looked just like Lex.

"Are you guys twins?" A boy asked from the back of the class.

"Yes," Leo and Lex answered at the same time.

Their teacher, Mr. Rudolf, addressed the classroom after the twins took their seat, "Well this is a very diverse classroom. We have classmates from Alexandria and England…" Sadie zoned out as Mr. Rudolf started talking about their first topics in class. After the bell rang Sadie got up to go to her next class, art.

As she was leaving she accidentally bumped into Nico making all of his books fall. He then looked at her with intense brown eyes that made her feel like she was going to melt. "Sorry," he mumbled as he started picking up his stuff.

"No, it was my fault," Sadie said embarrassed as she helped, "so you're from New York?"

"Um, kind of. I live here now, but I was born in Italy… Well at least I think I was born in Italy my mom is Italian – was Italian," he looked flustered, "She died when I was young."

"I'm sorry for your loss," Sadie said, now feeling strangely connected to him. It wasn't often she'd met people with a deceased parent, "My mother died too, my father also. I know it's tough…"

Nico smiled thoughtfully at her and Sadie's heart started racing again. Her friends Liz and Emma would be totally yelling at her to ask him out or talk to him some more, but Sadie didn't know what to say. He didn't either because they continued down the hallway in silence. Suddenly Sadie saw her brother running towards her and never felt happier to see him in her life. "Carter!" She yelled out.

Carter approached Sadie and Nico, observing the boy that was with his sister. Nico glanced questioningly between the two. "Oh, sorry Nico. Nico this is my brother Carter. Carter this is Nico," Sadie said motioning towards both of them.

"You two are related?" Nico asked surprised.

Sadie held back a groan, she really was getting tired of people doubting their relationship, "Yup, our dad is African-American and our mum is white. I take after our mother."

Nico nodded and a moment of awkward silence followed between the three of them. "Well I have to go to class. I have Physics," Nico said to the siblings.

Sadie nodded, "See you later."

"Yeah, later," Nico said before he disappeared into the crowd of people.

"He gives me the creeps," Carter told his sister.

Sadie hit him on his arm and glared at him, "Anything dark gives you the creeps."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

After discussing how their day was going, Carter quickly left in a jog for his next class leaving Sadie behind. She walked around in confusion looking for her art class. After five minutes of walking around she was about to give up her search, the building was like a huge maze.

"Woah watch it!" said a boy Sadie had accidentally walked into while she was looking down at her schedule.

She looked up only to find the bright blue eyes of Lex, the boy from her history class. His curly brown hair was a bit messy and covered his eyes a little, he was tall and lean with muscle tone that showed through his white button up t-shirt. He smiled at her when he recognized her face which made Sadie's heart beat fast again – the boys in this school would kill her before the day was finished!

"Sorry, I'm a bit lost," Sadie said blushing a little. She was not having a good day with the guys at her school, especially all the attractive ones.

Lex laughed and rubbed his hand through his hair, "I'm actually lost too. I told Leo, my sister, that I'd meet her at the next class. But I left my schedule with her, I have art next but I don't know the room number."

Sadie smiled at finding out where he was headed, she also thought his slight Mideast accent was cute. "I'm going to art too, I know the room number. You can help me find it if you'd like."

Lex nodded enthusiastically and they both set off for the room. With his help it only took them a minute to find the room which Sadie realized to her embarrassment she had passed two times without knowing it.

"Well I guess this is it, think our teacher will be mad?" Lex asked eyeing her amusingly. Sadie shrugged, at this point she didn't really care, she was in a good mood because his sunny disposition was starting to rub off on her. They both entered the room, the teacher was wearing a bright orange suit and had a curly blond afro. Sadie nearly laughed out loud at the sight. After he noticed them enter he turned to them, "A little late aren't we… I hope you two weren't making out in the hall on the first day." Winking at them as if he knew exactly what had happened outside his room.

Sadie grimaced and blushed as she took a seat in the back. Lex sat in the front next to his sister. After the long class, taught by Mr. Afropuff, which wasn't his name but Sadie thought it should be, she was leaving for her next class only to be stopped by Lex and Leo in the hall.

Leo was eyeing her suspiciously. Sadie thought she was very pretty. Her curly brown hair flowed down her back, and her bright blue eyes shined. She wore a maroon blouse and light blue skinny jeans. Sadie could tell they were exact opposites of one another, and from the look Leo was giving her, she didn't approve of Sadie's appearance at all.

Lex was still smiling at her though, his eyes bright and almost twinkling, pulling Sadie into a trance. "So what's your next class?"

"I have math," Sadie responded hoping they were in the same class.

"Aw that's too bad, we have biology," Leo said clearly not looking at all distressed about the revelation.

Lex looked disappointed but his smile soon returned, "Well meet us for lunch, okay?" Sadie nodded and after a few quick goodbyes the two twins walked away. Sadie headed to her math class disappointed, and a bit worried that she was so disappointed. Secretly, she'd still been harboring feelings for Anubis, although they hadn't seen each other since meeting in the duat for the first time.

This was at least her first class that she wasn't late for and she wanted at least one teacher to like her, so she decided to take a seat near the front in the second row. As the class filled up she noticed Nico enter the room. Excited at seeing him from earlier she waved him over. Nico looked questioningly at her but sat down next to her. "Surprised to see you here," Sadie said smiling at him.

"Well I have to take math sometime," he joked.

"Do you have lunch next?" Sadie asked trying to start a conversation.

"Yeah." Sadie could tell he wasn't as talkative as Lex. She still liked him, he seemed like he'd be a nice and normal friend but still unique in his own way. Plus, she really liked his aura and for some strange reason his earthy smell. It reminded her of where her father and mother now resided, in the underworld. Sadie questioned him about a few more things before their teacher started talking about math.

After class was over and she was finished packing up her bags she grabbed Nico's hand and pulled him with her down the hallway. Nico looked flustered at her sudden brazenness, but didn't make a move to let go of her hand.

"So, where are we going?" Nico asked smiling a little at Sadie's forcefulness.

Sadie looked back at him and grinned, "To the lunchroom of course. Or did you have other plans for lunch?" Realizing she might have acted a little too hastily.

Nico laughed, it was light and cheery which surprised Sadie. He shook his head, "Nope."

"Well then, let's go. I told some other people from class that I'd meet up with them," Sadie realized at that point they were still holding hands. She didn't want to let go though, and he didn't seem to either so they continued hand-in-hand to the lunchroom. Upon entering she quickly spotted Lex and Leo who waved her over to their table. She tried to ignore the glare Lex was sending in Nico's direction. But she quickly let go of Nico's hand as they sat down.

Lex was giving Nico a death glare, which Nico either didn't notice or wasn't bothered by.

"Who are you again?" Lex asked bluntly, still glaring.

Nico shifted awkwardly in his seat but still didn't seem intimidated by Nico's glare, "I'm Nico, I think we're all in the same history class. You're Lex and you're Leo right?" He asked motioning to both of them.

Leo smiled at Nico warmly, though her eyes had a menacing fierceness to them. "I'm Leo and this is my brother Lex, nice to meet you Nico... So, are you and Sadie going out?" She was grinning at Sadie and Nico.

Sadie was starting to not like her at all, she and her brother seemed to be complete opposites. "No, we're just friends," Sadie said glaring at her. Nico was blushing in his seat, he took out his lunch and began to eat cereal.

"Woah, you packed cereal for lunch?" Sadie asked taking out her own lunch, finding to her dismay Khufu had packed it.

Nico nodded, "My step-mom's mom loves cereal, practically invented the stuff."

Lex had gotten over his glaring and started talking to Sadie about their art class, until they were interrupted by Carter.

"Sadie, I need to speak to you about something," Carter said excitedly.

"Who are you?" Lex asked, Sadie could tell he was getting a little flustered with all the male attention she was receiving.

Carter glanced at him and sighed, "I'm Carter. Sadie's brother, and I know we look nothing alike."

Lex smiled, "Oh, hey. I'm Lex and this is my sister Leo, nice to meet you. You have a lovely sister by the way." Everyone gave him a questioning look. Carter grabbed Sadie's arm, dragging her to the opposite side of the lunch room, motioning for the guy that was behind him to stay with the others.

"What are you doing? I was eating with my friends," Sadie complained to her brother.

"I've got some really exciting news!"

Sadie rolled her eyes, "Oh brother, what is it now? Did you learn some amazing Physics formula again?"

Carter blushed, "No, that was one time Sadie! And I hope you know Physics is essentially the fundamentals of magic, it would do you some good to learn it." Sadie sighed and started to walk away when Carter grabbed her arm to stop her. "I think I've found a reincarnate!"

"What? What do you mean? What's a reincarnate?"

Carter rolled his eyes, "You'd know if you read those books I gave you. But anyways, a reincarnate is basically when the soul or spirit of a person who died is born into a new body. I think I've found someone super important, someone who might help us stop Apophis!" Carter was practically jumping in joy at his discovery.

Sadie on the other hand was skeptical, "Wait, so you're telling me some kid in your class was at one point someone who was already dead? And you know this how? Do you even know who he was?"

"Sadie, I think he's Marcus Antony and Cleopatra's kid."

Sadie was starting to get interested now, but was still skeptical, "What? You have to be joking. That's impossible right? How do you know?"

Carter shifted nervously, "Well I don't exactly. It's just I read a book about reincarnates, the one I gave to you, and the Egyptians believed in it a lot. He has the same name as one of their kids. He came here a few years ago from Egypt and he speaks perfect Latin even though he never took a class before. He also looks just like Marcus Antony!"

"Woah, hold on. I thought you said the spirit goes into a new body?"

"It does but I think his case may be different. And in Egypt there were similar cases of an offspring appearing that looked exactly like someone from the past."

Sadie nodded, absorbing the information. She was still skeptical though, "You're still not giving a lot of reasons as to how he could be a reincarnate. It could just be a bunch of coincidences."

Carter sighed and rubbed his hand through his hair nervously, "I know, but I think I'm on to something. You know the story Amos told us a few days ago, about how one of Cleopatra's children was deemed to be the rightful host of Ra right?"

"Yea," Sadie said not catching onto his point.

"Well Ra is stuck in the duat now, and remember last year how we found out that we needed a special host in order for Ra to ascend from the heavens? Well think about it, if we have a reincarnate of Caessarion who was thought to be the perfect host we could get Ra! Ra can help us defeat Apophis and he can return to giving hope to the dead!"

Sadie was beginning to catch on to her brother's enthusiasm, understanding what he was saying, "We have to make sure though. We don't want Ra to try and host him only to completely disintegrate him."

"Of course," Carter nodded, "It's amazing that you noticed him too. That'll help since he seems to like you."

"What are you talking about?" Sadie asked confused.

Carter pointed back to their lunch table, "Him, Lex, he's the one I believe to be a reincarnate." Sadie stared at Lex in shock. There was no way, sure he was from Egypt but he seemed so normal.

"Common, let's study them to make sure," Carter said pulling Sadie back to the others. They made their way back to the table. There Nico was speaking enthusiastically to Lex and Leo. It wasn't until they got closer to the table that they realized they were all speaking Alexandrian Greek.

* * *

**AN:/**

at : Everyone who favorite and reviewed and story alerted, THANK YOU and Hugs! キタ━━━( ゜∀ ゜)━━━! I'd give each and everyone one of you mango popsicles if I could. But I can't so have the cyber hug.

Lex in my mind looks like Aaron Johnson (pic: http / / : imgur . com/IgcF2 . jpg remove the spaces or just a google him) and Leo looks like a girl version of him, so add longer hair and makeup. :P


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Both Carter and Sadie approached the table and sat down in surprise. Sadie through some mysterious force understood Alexandrian Greek ever since that day she went snooping in the House of Life, and so she could understand the conversation that was going on amongst them.

"_Where did you learn Greek?"_ Nico asked Leo and Lex in Alexandrian Greek.

"_-Our father,"_ Lex answered hesitantly.

"_How about you?"_ Leo asked suspiciously.

Nico hesitated, "_At camp."_

"_What kind of camp is that?"_ Leo asked her smile becoming sinister and her eyes darkening, _"Any camp that teaches ancient Greek must be strange. After all, the Greeks were such barbaric people – a lot like the Romans too."_

Nico frowned, he clearly didn't like that statement, _"The Greeks are great people, and they were not barbaric. They were one of the greatest civilizations in the world."_

_"Were," _Lex emphasized darkly, _"And even that is questionable." _Sadie could pick up on the tense atmosphere between the three of them and desperately wanted to change the subject.

Pretending she didn't know what they were discussing she interrupted, "Oh wow you guys, what are you guys speaking? It sounds so cool!" Carter laughed at her bad attempt at cooling everyone down. But the others must've gotten the hint and turned their attention from each other.

"It's just Greek Sadie," Lex said in a completely different tone than what he was using with Nico.

"How did you two learn to speak ancient Greek and Latin? And where did you learn Greek from Nico? Can you speak Latin too?" Carter asked cautiously, but Sadie could tell he was trying to hide his excitement. He probably though Nico was another reincarnate too. And Sadie was starting to wonder herself. They were only 14, the chances of them learning such a hard language at an early age would be magical - and herself included, it was.

Everything was so weird to Sadie, clearly these people weren't your everyday normal school children, unless this is how most American schools were.

"Our father taught us," Lex explained, "He was very interested in the classics growing up."

"I learned it at a camp I go to," Nico also explained, he looked ready to leave with Lex and Leo's dark gazes returning to him.

"I find that hard to believe," Leo said bluntly, "You sound like you've spoken it all your life."

Nico shifted in his seat nervously, and laughed. "That's crazy. I'm just really good at picking up languages."

Suddenly the bell rang, signaling it was time for her to go to gym. Sadie shared a look with Carter which meant they needed to find out more about Lex, Leo and now Nico. Sadie was throwing away her trash with Nico in tow, who also had gym next. Sadie decided to reveal her own talent to Nico.

"_That sure was weird," _she muttered in Ancient Greek, just loud enough for him to hear.

"Yea, it was. Not every day you meet people who can speak Ancient Greek," Nico replied in English. Then he froze and gave her an incredulous look, "Did you just speak it?"

Sadie laughed and hit him on his arm making him jump in surprise.

"Ouch! Why did you hit me," Nico pouted while rubbing his arm from where she punched him. He had to admit, the girl could throw a punch.

"You learned Ancient Greek that well at a summer camp? Am I really supposed to believe that?"

Nico was staring at her in surprise as they both started out of the lunch room. "Wait, how do _you_ know it?" He asked turning the conversation to her.

"No way dirt boy, I asked you first," Sadie said.

"Dirt boy," Nico asked confused, "Do I smell like B-O? I took a shower this morning, I don't think I stink that bad."

Sadie laughed at him as he started sniffing his shirt and underarms, "No, you smell fine. But kind of like dirt. I like it."

Nico's face reddened slightly and continued down the hallway next to Sadie toward the gymnasium, "Thanks I guess."

"So are you going to answer my question or not. How do you really know Ancient Greek?" Sadie wasn't going to back down and let him get away this easily.

When they reached the doors to the gym Nico grabbed Sadie's hand to keep her from going inside. "Look, I can't tell you okay?" Nico said gently but firmly.

Sadie shrugged but nodded her understanding, "But in that case don't ask me how I know it. Deal?" Nico agreed and they both went to gym class. After a long boring period of their teacher demonstrating "gym safety," they both had different classes and went separate ways.

Sadie was still wondering about Nico and his reluctance to share how he knew the ancient language as she walked to her next class, but she wouldn't press him about it anymore unless he wanted to talk about it. She understood the need to have some secrets though. Her final class for the day was English and to her surprise Lex was sitting in the back without his usual companion. He smiled at her as she entered and motioned for her to sit next to him.

She smiled at him before remembering the conversation she heard earlier and glared at him. He was clearly not revealing everything about himself either. And if he was a reincarnate she was going to figure it out herself.

"So, I was wondering about you. What does Lex stand for?" Sadie asked wondering if he would lie about his real name.

He gave her an odd look but answered her question, "Alexander-Helios Jazeera, and I know it's an odd name."

Sadie was a bit shocked that he had answered so honestly, "It is a bit odd, Helios is the Greek Titan of the sun right?"

Lex nodded, "Yea, I don't like my name that much, what's so great about being named after a Greek?" He laughed, Sadie couldn't help but notice the strong animosity he had against Greeks. As he leaned back in his chair and looked at her. His curly brown hair was in his bright blue eyes that were penetrating hers. Sadie began to forget her earlier determination to find out what he truly was, and like earlier she felt her heart beating a little faster.

"It's not bad, I think it's kind of cute in a way. You're really cheerful like the sun, so it suits you," Sadie rambled as she looked away from him embarrassed by the look he was giving her. Lex smiled and suddenly leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. Sadie nearly choked on the spit in her mouth from surprise.

"Woah! What was that for?" Sadie asked. Her face was turning into a maroon sort of color. And she pulled away putting a hand to her extremely hot cheek. Lex quickly jerked away from her and leaned back in his seat, looking a bit hurt and apologetic.

"Sorry, I got a little carried away." He turned his attention towards the teacher, leaving Sadie wondering what just happened.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4:**

After class Alexander/Alex/Lex, whatever his name was, left before Sadie could even tell him see you later.

Still shocked at the kiss he gave her she trudged towards her locker to get the rest of her books. Then she went looking for Carter at the main entrance of the school.

Carter was sitting outside on the main steps waiting for his sister to appear. As he was waiting he saw Sadie's friends Lex and Leo pass quickly by, they were talking about something rapidly in Ancient Greek. Carter was really annoyed that he couldn't understand the language; he still didn't understand how Sadie learned it so fast. She always picked up things easily.

After a few more minutes he saw another one of her other friends, Nico, leaving the school. Carter wasn't keen about Nico hanging around his little sister. His earlier display of his mastery of Ancient Greek was suspicious, combine with how generally something about him gave Carter the creeps, and he smelled like death.

Carter was happy that she had made friends though, he didn't want his little sister to be depressed all school year.

Finally Sadie appeared at the front door of the school. Carter could tell something was wrong with her because her face was pink and she looked like she was looking for someone. After Sadie noticed him she ran over to where he was standing, "How are we getting home?" She asked. Carter motioned towards the street where the shiny black Mercedes Benz was waiting with Bast in the driver's seat.

Sadie grinned as she ran towards her friend, beating Carter to the front seat. On the ride home they told Bast about their day, neither mentioning anything about Lex, Leo or Nico. Carter and Sadie both wanted to discuss things amongst themselves first. When they arrived they received a similar question-and-answer screening from their uncle. Sadie reluctantly admitted that school wasn't as bad as it could have been. They also both failed to mention anything about the others.

After dinner that consisted of Macaronni and Cheese and Salad they retired to their rooms. Carter was sitting on his bed reading the first chapter of his Latin book to get ahead when he heard a knock on his door. "Come in," he was surprised to see that it was Sadie since she would normally barge in his room without knocking half the time, which was very stressful for a teenage boy.

Carter noticed the look on her face and knew she wanted to talk about what was troubling her, "What's up?" He asked.

Sadie sighed as she collapsed on the bed next to him, "Lex kissed me," she said bluntly.

Carter was shocked, not at the fact that she was kissed but that she was coming to him for boy trouble. He also had enough of his own relationship problems also known as, the-girl-I-like-is-living-across-the-globe-from-me-and-I-haven't-seen-her-in-two-years–girl-trouble. He also didn't know what to say, "Is that a good thing?" he asked.

Sadie glared at him as if the answer was obvious, "No! I mean Yes! Maybe, I dunno. I guess it's just with everything you told me today, it's got me that that maybe he's a reincarnate."

Carter smiled, "I told you so!" Sadie wanted to wipe his smirk of his face but resisted. Carter continued, "But, I think we should wait and make sure, it's too dangerous if we rush into things."

Sadie nodded, "I agree, I think we should watch them closely to make sure. If they are reincarnates or if they know about the House of Life already they might already suspect us, we also have to be discrete."

Carter agreed and Sadie left to go to her room. Sadie didn't tell Carter about Nico – and how didn't admit to not admitting to the fact that he didn't learn Ancient Greek in a camp - because something told her that if Carter knew about him he would disapprove of them seeing each other.

Sadie was dead tired for the next day of school. That night her ba went nuts visiting different sites in Egypt as she watched magicians being attacked by both Egyptian demons and Greek monsters. She woke up feeling like she'd walked for miles instead of sleeping.

* * *

She groaned as she looked at her history class's door, she didn't want to go in. It was going to be awkward with Nico and Lex there – especially since they hated each other and she liked both of them (as friends). Sadie took a deep breath and walked into the room, avoiding looking at anyone directly and taking a seat next to a guy with blue hair and freckles.

"Nice hair," She said to the guy.

"Thanks," he said back at her.

Suddenly Sadie saw a shadow in front of her and looked up into the smiling face of Lex. She guessed he had gotten over his embarrassment from yesterday faster than her.

"Hey little lady," he said jokingly.

"Hey little man," Sadie replied while she tried to avoid looking into his eyes.

He sat down next to her and took out his books and put them on his desk.

"Aren't you going to sit next to your sister?" Sadie asked looking at Leo who she caught sneaking a glare over at them.

Lex sighed as he saw his sister's disapproval, "Nah, she's a bit mad at me today. Though I guess she's going to be even madder after this period."

Lex then turned towards Sadie in his chair and looked at her seriously, "About yesterday Sadie, I'm really sorry about kissing you like that. And I know it's sudden and we don't know each other that well but… It's just I like you, so I was wondering if you would like to go out with me?"

Sadie was tempted to say yes on the spot, she was caught up in a trance when she looked at him, the sincerity in his eyes told her he really meant what he said. But, then there was Nico… No wait- she meant Anubis. Although he was a god, a god thousands of years older than her she still had set her goal on him… But he was a god and then there was Nico- she knew she liked Nico, he was dark, mysterious, hot and looked great in black. There were simply too many boys to go around. I Liz and Emma were around they could've split them up evenly.

Sighing, because she knew that was never to happen she replied, "Erm, Lex I like you too, but I'm not sure if it's just as a friend or what." Sadie said nervously as she stared at her desk. She shot a quick glance at him and could see the visible disappointment on his features which disappeared just as fast as it came and was replaced by his usual smile.

"Well we can just hang out as friends then. Although I just confessed I want there to be no pressure, I think we should get to know each other first anyways."

Sadie couldn't think of an argument against that, she could still spend time with him without feeling guilty about Nico and Anubis. And besides she was supposed to follow him to see if he really was a reincarnate. Sadie smiled at him shyly, "Yes, that sounds nice."

Lex's smile got wider, "Great! I'll see you after school then?"

Sadie nodded her head in agreement. She didn't notice Nico scowling a few desks away.


	5. Chapter 5 Part 1 and 2

**Chapter 5 part 1:**

Sadie spent the next two periods chatting with Lex, both exchanging random tidbits about themselves. Lex wanted to know more about her life in England, and Sadie questioned him about his life in Alexandria. They also discovered that they both had a crazy obsession for bubble gum.

After they finished art class the two of them separated and planned to meet for lunch. Sadie then set out for math. She sat down in the back of the classroom and waited for Nico to enter. She was curious of what they were going to talk about today, or if he was going to open up more to her.

When she spotted Nico entering she smiled and waved for him to sit next to her. Nico ignored her and sat in the front seat. Confused, Sadie rose from her seat and approached where Nico was sitting. Then she took one of his books that was on his desk and slammed it down.

"Hello Nico, you there?" She questioned jokingly as he continued to ignore her. She waved her hands in front of his face, but he still pretended she wasn't there.

"Silent treatment, huh? Well I'll get you to speak to me," Sadie said grinning at the challenge.

Sadie leaned down and blew softly on his ear, she laughed when she saw him shudder. But he still didn't say anything, he wasn't even looking at her.

Sadie was growing annoyed, "Fine, I'll up the antics." Sadie then grabbed his head with both of her hands and leveled his face with hers glaring into his eyes, "Still nothing?"

Sadie then started moving slowly to his face as she puckered out her lips as if she were going to kiss him. That caught Nico's attention. Nico quickly jerked his face away from hers, "Woah! What are you doing?" He shouted in surprise, his normally pale face was bright pink.

Sadie straightened up in front of him and smirked, "Got you to talk to me," she said, sticking her tongue out at him.

Nico's shock quickly turned into anger, "That's not funny Sadie, shouldn't you not be trying to kiss other boys? With your boyfriend and all, isn't that considered cheating?" He was glaring at her but the pinkness remained on his face.

Sadie shifted uncomfortably, she understood why Nico would think she was going out with Lex. But at the same time both her and Lex weren't going out. It wasn't like she and Nico were a couple, why did he care? She thought angrily.

"What's it to you?" She asked peeved at the way he was treating her.

"Well you did just try to kiss me. I don't want to be another one of your boy toys."

Sadie gasped at the insinuation and punched him on his arm. Then she stomped back to her seat in the back. She was angry at Nico, how dare he infer that she was some kind of boy-crazy slut. The rest of the class Sadie glared holes into the back of Nico's neck. After math she quickly stormed out of the room avoiding Nico and went to the lunchroom. Before she entered she took a deep breath, she didn't want everyone to think she was some dangerous psycho.

Then she felt someone cover her eyes from behind her making her jump, "Wha-! Carter if that's you I'm gonna punch your brains out, which will probably only take one hit."

The person behind her laughed, she recognized him immediately, "Hey Lex, you can let go now."

Lex lowered his hands and stepped in front of her, "Hi. How was math?" He asked oblivious of her bad mood. She smiled back at him, at least someone was pissing her off.

"It was okay," Sadie said lying. They both hadn't brought their lunch to school that day and didn't like the strange choice that were being offered for hot lunch. Sadie grimaced as she looked at what can only be described as a casserole of everything the lunch ladies could find in the fridge, "Do you want to go out for lunch?" Sadie asked Lex eyeing him as he was also disgusted at the food choices.

Lex nodded, "I thought you'd never ask."

Luckily the Beacon School was open campus, allowing anyone to leave for their lunch period. The two set off for a little café that was a few streets down. Lex said one of his relatives worked there and could give them some free food.

As they were walking Lex suddenly grabbed her arm, bringing his finger up to his mouth to signal her to stay quiet.

"What?" Sadie whispered to him alarmed as she tried to see what he was looking at. Then she saw Nico talking to a dark figure in an alley. Sadie and Lex quickly moved behind the wall that separated them from the alley and peeked around it at Nico.

"What do you think he's doing?" Sadie whispered to Lex.

Lex shrugged as he maintained focus on Nico. Whatever Nico was talking about must not have been good, he was glaring at the man. Then suddenly he disappeared. Not like pop! He was gone. More like he became one with the shadows, sinking into it. It was definitely not something you'd see every day. "Woah! Did you see that?" Sadie asked Lex in surprise as they both ran to where Nico had just been standing.

Well that confirmed it to Sadie, Nico was definitely not normal. Now she just had to figure out what he was. It was possible that he was a member of the House of Life, his shadow merging was like a kind of magic. But somehow Sadie wasn't convinced. She toyed with the idea that he was a magician in a rogue group.

"That definitely was not normal," Lex was frowning as he studied the wall intently at the spot where the shadow and Nico had been, running his fingers over it.

Sadie was silent as she stood there in shock. Although she was still angry at Nico from earlier, she was worried that he may be in danger. She didn't know what to do. "I think I should talk to my brother," Sadie said to Lex.

Lex nodded and they headed back towards the school. Suddenly they heard a scream. It sounded like someone running their nails down a chalkboard. Lex looked around nervously and screamed, "Run!" Sadie didn't need to be told twice after she saw three dark figures flying after them. They were only two blocks from the school but the figures were gaining. Sadie knew they weren't going to make it. She'd have to use her magic.

Sadie turned around suddenly and shouted, "Ha-di!" the spell appeared in blue hieroglyphics.

Lex noticed her absence and had already turned around. He was watching her intently. It was too bad her spell did absolutely nothing to the figures but enrage them. Sadie knew she was in trouble. She wished her brother was there to help her.

Suddenly she saw a blur run past her, it was Lex. Sadie screamed for him to stop, she didn't want him to get hurt. Then he pulled out two daggers. Sadie watched in amazement as he jumped up and sliced one of the figures quickly. The figure disappeared into cloud of ash. Lex dodged and jumped as the other two figures attacked him ruthlessly. He was truly amazing, he was moving so fast Sadie almost couldn't see him. He easily took down the two dark figures in no time.

A bit winded he housed his two daggers into his belt, which Sadie just noticed, and tucked his shirt over it. Then he turned around to look at her, his blue eyes anxious to see what she'd do next.

After a few moments of Sadie staring at him with her mouth slightly open she finally gained the ability to speak again, "What was that?" She asked dumbly.

"Furies, nasty buggers," He said as if that was answering her question. He looked back at where they had been flying/standing and sighed, "They don't respond to certain magic, that's why your spell didn't work."

Sadie stared dumbly at him wondering how he knew so much, and wondering who and what he was, "What are you?"

Lex smiled nervously but tensed suddenly, "We have to get back to school now, I'll tell you later okay?" Sadie nodded and they both ran back to their school. Once they reached the entrance Sadie wondered if he would tell her who he truly was.

Lex seemed to read her mind, "You said you'd go out with me today, are you still up for it?" Sadie shook her head enthusiastically, she was on the brink of determining who he really was, and wasn't going to miss this chance. Lex's face brightened, "Meet me here after school, we can go to my house. It'll be safe. I'll tell you as much as I can there."

Sadie nodded and the bell rang. They said their goodbyes and Sadie hurried to the gymnasium. She had to confront Nico.

**Chapter 5 Part 2:**

Nico was not having a good day. Lex had kissed the girl he liked and he didn't know what to do. Of course he thought about obviously asking her out, but he was already beaten to it. And besides if she had said no to Lex, then she was definitely going to reject him. It was definitely tough being a 15-year old guy. Especially a son of Hades who often preferred the company of the dead rather than most humans.

Nico decided to skip lunch, he didn't want to have to face Sadie or Lex. As he wondered down the street wondering why life was treating him so poorly he heard a man saying his name. He turned around to see one of his father's cronies standing in an alley.

Groaning Nico walked over to where the man was standing. "What do you want?" Nico asked angrily.

"You're wanted at Camp," the man said coldly.

Nico nodded, he knew that the Camp had been having problems with strange monsters lately. The man walked into the wall, disappearing into a shadow. Nico didn't necessarily like shadow traveling, it always left him a little tired. However he knew that the situation was probably urgent if he was being called from school. Nico slipped into the dark shadow of the alley and then popped out in the forests of Camp Half-Blood.

He could hear screaming and general commotion. Nico ran as fast as he could in the direction of the sound. He drew his sword and charged, summoning a few of undead soldiers. The monster was huge and scary. It had the arms and legs of a lion and the head and body of a crocodile. It was definitely a strange site.

"Hey Nico!" he heard his friend Percy yell to him as he was swinging his own sword.

A year had passed since he had set off to find Percy. That was when he discovered the secret of the Roman demigods. Camp Half-Blood had made contact with the Roman camp a few months back, then they "exchanged" Percy and Jason. The Romans decided to also go to Greece to fight the giants and Gaia but they decided to stay in California and prepare their own ship to send off some of their campers instead of using Argo II.

Nico kept dodge the blows, the monster was tough, and everyone's swords weren't as effective as they were to the familiar monsters. The Hephaestus campers had created different versions of Festus and the dragons were currently attacking the monster. But even they were getting thrown around.

Nico saw Annabeth talking to some other campers in the distance, he was wondering how long they had been attacking the monster since they all look winded.

After a gruesome half hour of fighting, the monster finally disappeared in a puff of ash. Nico was exhausted. He almost felt the same level of exhaustion during the Battle of the Labyrinth that had occurred a few years ago leaving him close to death.

"Nice fighting," Percy said to Nico as he was trying to catch his breath.

Nico nodded, "You were really good too. I'm afraid my undead soldiers are pretty much useless against these things. Has Chiron found out what they are yet?"

"Me and Annabeth think he knows but he won't tell us for some reason. I think this has something to do with him swearing upon the River Stixs."

The two of them found Annabeth and Grover. Nico looked away from them as Annabeth and Percy kissed, only reminding him of his earlier situation. Although Percy had forgotten all about Annabeth in the Roman camp, like some kind of sappy love story they found their way back together. But Nico was happy for them, every time he saw them together they were cuddling or kissing or making out. That's normally when he left.

"How was school Nico?" Annabeth asked as they walked to the Big House for an emergency meeting about the recent attack.

"Terrible," Nico said hoping they'd drop the conversation. Nico had been forced by his father and step-mother to go to school. He had protested but they were only looking out for his future. And because he wasn't one of the 7 in the prophecy he was stuck in New York anyways.

Annabeth patted him on his back trying to comfort him, "I'm sure it'll get better."

They met in the familiar meeting room in the Big House, sitting around the usual Ping Pong table. A few cabin leaders were missing due to injury. Luckily during the last battle no one had died. However the past few attacks on the camp had led to the death of Kayla from the Apollo cabin, Isaac from the Hephaestus cabin and a few others. It pained Nico whenever someone died, the camp had become his new family, and after Bianca's death he was determined to protect it.

"What are we going to do after Percy, Annabeth, Leo and Piper leave?" asked Katie Gardner once everyone was sitting, "They're some of our best fighters, we're doomed if we don't have them."

"We don't need them!" Clarisse said glaring at Katie, "We can still fight them off without them, you have me remember."

No one wanted to get into a fight with Clarisse while they were already exhausted, so they didn't question her.

"Has anyone found out what these monsters are?" Nico asked quietly.

They shook their heads, "We should just force Chiron to tell us!" Travis said suddenly. He had blood dripping from a cut on his cheek.

"Yea, it's not fair that we have to sit back getting our butts kicked every week. It's almost daily now! We aren't safe here, and our weapons are basically useless," Connor added in. He also looked worst for where, his face was bruised and he had dried blood on his orange shirt.

A few of them glared at Chiron who sighed. He was unable to help them even though he knew what those monsters were. Nico thought the gods were again being very selfish in not allowing them information.

"Chiron if you can't tell us, can we ask the gods?" Percy said breaking the tension that was directed towards their activities director.

"Honestly, I think it's important you are told. I will ask the gods if it is okay for them to explain everything," Chiron said compromising with them.

A few campers still looked angry but for the most part everyone thought it was a good idea.

After the meeting was over Nico decided to stick around camp. Not seeing the point in going back to school. He guessed he would at camp for the weekend. They could probably use all the help they could get. And he didn't really feel like making the trip to the Underworld, he was dead tired.

"Hey Piper," he said to the daughter of Aphrodite as he was heading to his cabin to sleep. He didn't know Piper too well. She mostly stayed with Leo after Jason returned to the camp. Nico was skeptical of her at first due to her being a child of Aphrodite. He thought most of them were shallow. However she proved herself, she managed to save Hera and she had supposedly brought Jason back from a semi-dead state.

Piper looked at him sadly, he suddenly felt understanding for her. "I'm tired," she said smiling weakly at him.

"Me too, I feel like I could sleep for days," Nico said smiling slightly at her.

Piper laughed. Then they separated as she reached her own cabin. Nico walked up the obsidian cabin that he had built the summer before. He walked in and welcomed the darkness, and then he collapsed onto his dark bed covers and fell asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6:**

Sadie rushed to her next class eager to see Nico. After changing into her gym uniform Sadie hurried to where her class was meeting. She looked around for any sign of Nico but didn't see him.

"Excuse me Ms. Collins but do you know where Nico is?" Sadie asked her buff teacher. Ms. Collins shrugged and continued to take attendance.

Sadie was worried, panicked almost. She began to wonder if maybe the Furies Lex had talked about had something to do with Nico. At the moment she just wanted to rush out the building and search for him in every dark alley, but even she knew that was reckless even for her normal self. She instead walked through gym class worrying about Nico the whole time.

Lex was sitting in the back again at English and Sadie sat down next to him. "You look gloomy," He said sympathetically.

Sadie buried her head in her arms, "I think something happened to Nico, he wasn't in gym class."

Lex patted her on the back comfortingly, "I think I know what he is."

Sadie's head jumped up, "What is he?" She was eager to know what he thought of the whole situation and maybe he knew where he was.

Lex looked at the teacher apologetically for Sadie's outburst and whispered, "I'll tell you at my house." Sadie glared at him but reluctantly stayed quiet throughout the class. Afterwards they both split up to go to their lockers. Sadie then realized she had to tell Carter what was going on.

Sadie ran over to Carter's locker, he was with some dorky looking Senior. Sadie grabbed his arm and dragged him away from the guy. Quickly she explained everything that had happened at lunch, including the thing about Nico.

Carter absorbed it all. "I'm going with you to Lex's house, it's too dangerous for you to go alone. We still don't know much about him and his sister, and something is definitely up with them," He said without a hint of budging his stance. Sadie agreed and after Carter told his friend goodbye they left to find Lex.

They found Lex arguing with Leo in Ancient Greek on the front steps of the school. Leo noticed them first and gave Sadie a dark glare. When Lex noticed them he gave Carter an odd look wondering why he was there.

"Sadie told me everything and I'm not letting her go with you alone," Carter explained.

Leo's glare then became directed at Carter and spoke to her brother in Greek, _"See, now you've added even more trouble."_

Lex glared at his sister and looked at Carter, "I understand and I'd do the same if I were in your position. You're welcome to come. Follow us." And they set off down the street. Lex and Leo lived about 6 blocks away from the school and with the congestion on the sidewalk it took them a good 25 minutes to reach their place.

The twins lived in a nice but small looking apartment complex. There were gates on the outside the property, and a huge garden full of exotic looking plants that led up to the door of the building. Lex took out his key and let them inside. The Kanes followed the twins as they led them up the stairs that connected to the main hallway. They walked up a flight of stairs before they reached their door.

"Sorry if the place is a bit messy, we're still unpacking," Lex explained as he opened the door with his keys. Then he muttered something that Carter and Sadie couldn't hear and a silver hieroglyphic appeared in the air. It disappeared too fast for Sadie to read it. Their apartment was messy. Boxes were strewn all over the floor and weird objects that both Carter and Sadie had no clue were. Lex led them into the kitchen which was the only place that seemed to not be completely packed with stuff.

The Kanes sat down around a small round table as Lex started preparing tea for all of them. Leo remained standing and was glaring at all three of them before she excused herself from the room. "Sorry about her, she hates moving," Lex said sighing as he got them all mugs and placed them on the table, "I guess I should start explaining."

Carter and Sadie nodded. Lex filled their mugs with green tea and sat down. He took a sip before he began talking, "First of all I should probably confess that I've known about you two all along."

Sadie gasped, "How?"

Lex smiled at her and continued, "I saw you years ago, you were in the first nome. I remembered both of you, when I saw you enter the room that other day in history class I knew exactly who you were. Sadie Kane, the fugitive with her brother Carter Kane. The House of Life really hates you two."

Sadie was confused, "So our friendship was just so you could use me? Keep watch over us? Are you going to turn us in?" She was glaring at him now, feeling betrayed.

Lex was taken aback, "No! I promise you Sadie it's not like that at all. I guess I should start from the beginning. As I told you before Sadie, my real name is Alexander-Helios Jazeera. Leo's name is Cleopatra-Selene Jazeera. I don't know if you've heard about such things but we are reincarnations."

Carter grinned, "I knew it," he said poking Sadie on her side.

Lex continued, "We were both discovered to be reincarnates after our father took us to the council of the House of Life. Our parents were members and were assigned positions in Alexandria. They were suspicious of us at our birth because of how different we looked from them. We had brown hair and blue eyes, they all had dark skin and dark features.

Our mother feared of us possibly being reincarnates right away. She didn't want to take us to the House of Life at all for fear they might kill us. Our father disagreed, he took us in the middle of the night without our mother's knowledge."

Lex's face looked sad as he continued, "He took us to the council, all the members were there except Iskander. They all recognized who we were. They wanted us killed, destroyed before we could grow up. My father tried to dissuade them, he wanted us to grow up in the House and be trained, he promised we would only be loyal to the House.

By then our mother had arrived, she was furious at our father and anguished when the council told her we were to be killed. She begged them to spare us, she even offered her own life as payment."

Lex paused and Sadie could see how hard it was for him to talk about this, she held his hand trying to comfort him. Lex smiled at her sadly as he continued, "My mother wasn't going to let them kill us without a fight. The council members tried to move her out of the way but she kept trying to hold us to protect us from them. Then one of the members, Desjardins, threw a killing spell. She died immediately."

Sadie held his hand tighter as he told them this. "That's when Iskander arrived. He tried to get everyone to act peacefully. I guess Iskander took pity on us at the sight of us crying under our dead mother's body and our father sitting their helpless. He apologized to our father for the council's actions and decided to keep watch over us.

We lived there since. We trained there for years until Iskander died. You see Desjardins still believed we were dangerous. By then we had known and accepted that we were reincarnates of the original Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene, we even took their names. He disliked us because of our Greek and Roman ancestry. He believed we were enemies to the House and to Egypt."

Carter nodded he knew exactly where Lex was coming from.

"After Desjardins became Head Lector Leo and I fled, we knew after you two we would be his next targets. We managed to escape to Alexandria where our father lived. Since then we've been moving around nonstop. We can never stay too long, the House has many ears."

"Is that why Leo doesn't trust us?" Sadie asked Lex.

Lex nodded, "She thinks you're working with the House now. We heard Desjardins let you go. I'll admit I was a little hesitant too, that's why I didn't tell you everything right away."

Sadie understood and felt bad for thinking he was using her earlier, he was simply afraid for his life. "How do you know we aren't working with the House?" Sadie asked.

Lex smiled at her, his face holding no trace of the earlier sadness. "I trust you," he said simply, "Leo thinks I'm being foolish, but I really do trust you. You have a good ba, I can tell."

"Well you can trust us, I promise I won't tell anyone about you," Sadie said. She would keep this promise if she had to take it to her grave.

"I also promise," Carter added.

Lex smiled at the two of them, "Oh yea! I forgot I have something for you Carter. It's from Zia," Lex stood up from his chair and moved through the clutter to a room in the back.

Carter perked up in his seat in surprise.

Lex came back after a minute with an envelope in his hand, "I've had this for a while. I saw Zia a few months ago after she found out I was going to New York. She wanted me to drop this off at your Uncle's house. But it was too dangerous to go there, but at least now I can give it to you."

Carter's eyes were as big as saucers as he took the letter and stuffed it in his pocket, he would wait to read it in privacy (away from his sister) later in his room.

"Thanks man," Carter said with a giant grin on his face.

Sadie laughed at her brother, she could tell him and Zia were going to be a couple someday. He had been crushing on her the past two years nonstop.

Sadie suddenly remembered Nico, "I almost forgot, you were going to tell me about Nico!"

Lex's expression darkened at the mention of Nico. "I think he's a demigod," Lex said waiting for the two sibling's reactions.

Sadie's mind went blank, a demiwhat?

"What's a demigod?" asked an also confused Carter.

"You two do know there are also Greek gods, right?" Sadie and Carter nodded. "Well the Greek gods are different than the Egyptian gods in that they don't need to use a host. While they can take animal form like the Egyptians, they mainly chose to use their human forms."

Sadie nodded as she took in the information but she was wondering how Lex knew all of this and she and Carter knew nothing, "Where did you learn all of this? Why was it hidden from us?"

"They told us when we were training mostly, we learned a lot about the Romans and Greeks," Lex explained.

"So Nico is part Greek god…" Sadie said trying to absorb the information.

Lex nodded "I can't be completely sure but I'm fairly certain he is. I'm also not fully sure who his godly parent is. After lunch today I'm guessing either Hectate or Hades."

Sadie only briefly learned about the Greek gods, she would've learned more about them had she stayed in England for her next year in school. "Who are they?" She asked confused.

Carter sighed making Sadie want to punch him, "You really don't know anything do you –OW!" Carter shouted as Sadie wacked him on his arm. Lex laughed at the two siblings.

"It's okay if you don't know Sadie," Lex said as he tried to stop Sadie from hitting her brother any further. "Hectate is the goddess of magic and Hades is the ruler of the Greek Underworld. Hades is the brother of Zeus, Poseidon and Hera. Zeus is the ruler of the gods and they live in Olympus which is located somewhere in the Empire state building."

"Woah, you mean I could walk to Olympus from here?" asked an excited Sadie. That was why Bast had generally warned them to stay out of Manhattan – the Greeks were just around the corner practically.

Lex scowled, "Unless you want to get blasted into bits I wouldn't do that. Greeks aren't to be trusted. I've seen some of them, on my travels and I've heard about them from others. Did you know that just last year all of New York was being threatened by some lunatic demigod? They are traitors and liars, those Gracus scum can't be trusted." Sadie knew Lex had animosity toward the Greeks, but he seemed to hate them. Personally, Sadie didn't know too much about them to make a generalized statement – plus, Nico seemed nice."

"So Hectate or Hades? I'm going to say he's Hades's kid," Sadie said trying to change the subjects. Lex's eyes lost their dangerous tint and he took a deep breath.

"Why do you say that?" questioned a now calm Lex.

"He smells of dirt and the earth," Sadie said smiling to herself as she remembered his fragrance.

"Eww," Carter muttered.

Sadie glared at him, "Not like that, he smells good. I like it." Sadie saw Lex frown a bit, she figured it would be best to probably not mention Nico for a while. They sat there in an awkward silence for a while before Carter spoke.

"I forgot to ask this earlier but how do you know Zia?" Carter asked Lex as he finished his cup of tea.

Lex looked a little uncomfortable, "We kind of grew up together."

Carter was interested in anything Zia and wanted to know more about her as much as he could even if he had to use someone else to find out, "So you guys were good friends?" he asked.

Lex blushed and studied his hands, "Kind of, we dated for a while. Though it was nothing serious, just hanging out really, I was only 13!"

Good thing Carter had already finished his tea because he would've spat all over the table, "You two dated?" Even Sadie was interested, she couldn't picture Zia and Lex together. Heck, she couldn't picture Zia and anyone together. Zia seemed like she would beat anyone up for looking at her too long.

Lex smiled at Carter to ease the tension as he noticed Carter glaring daggers at him, "It was nothing serious I promise. She likes you a lot I can tell. She kept asking me to give you the letter and spoke only good things about you."

Carter blushed and his thoughts of murdering Lex were replaced by happiness, "Really?" He asked smiling.

Lex grinned at him and patted him on his shoulder, "Really, she's got the hots for you. You need to get her when you see her next time mate. She's only getting more beautiful with each passing day, you don't know who will try and take her."

Carter's happiness turned to sadness, he really missed Zia. He hoped that he could see her again soon. He was even more determined now than before to see her. "Do you know about the situation in Egypt," Carter asked Lex.

"Yes, I'm very worried about Egypt. I've been getting updates from Zia sometimes but I haven't heard from her in a while, I'm getting worried," Lex's face was full of sorrow and Sadie wondered if he suspected something had happened to her too, "I know Zia is tough, but she's going to need help. The House of Life needs help, but there's no way I could go back now. They'd just kill us."

Carter nodded in understanding, Sadie patted him on the back to get him to cheer up. She felt bad for her lovesick brother.

"I still think we should do something," Sadie suddenly felt a surge of inspiration, "I saw you fight Lex, you are amazing. You should've seen him Carter, he took down these Furies in less than a minute." Lex blushed at her praise and Sadie continued, "With us four being skilled fighters, and with all of the recruits, we could easily put up a challenge against the House of Life. They have a strength in numbers, but we have a strength in power."

The others looked at her doubtfully. And Sadie sighed in frustration – she was used to Carter not taking her seriously or ignoring her suggestions but she didn't want Lex to. "We can't just wait for Apophis to resume control."

Lex was the first to speak, "Well, I'm tired of running so I'm in."

Carter sighed heavily, "I want to go more than anyone, but it's too risky. I feel like we're walking into a trap, like Desjardin knows what we want to do and is just waiting for us. It's hard to explain…" Sadie wondered if Carter had been on any recent travels with his ba, but she would question him later.

They sat in silence letting their worries and suspicions sink in. After a few minutes Leo returned to the room. "Father's going to be home soon," She told Lex still glaring at the three of them.

Lex sat up alarmed, "Oh crap, I forgot. You guys have to leave. I know I said I trust you and everything, but my father is another story."

Sadie and Carter quickly got up from their spots at the table as they were being hushed from the room by a frantic Lex. As Carter was walking out the front gate of the apartment complex Lex grabbed Sadie's hand holding her in place. Sadie looked up at his face, his hair was covering his blue eyes. She guessed he liked it that way. She didn't know how, she hated when her hair got in her eyes.

"About today, we didn't really get to spend time together alone. So I was kind of wondering if you wanted to meet up tomorrow?" Lex asked Sadie nervously.

Sadie honestly wasn't sure, everything was happening so suddenly and with Nico possibly in danger she was pretty sure she was going to spend the whole weekend worrying on the couch chewing gum and watching karate flicks. But, she didn't want to stress herself out too much, if there's one thing she learned in the past two years it's to take the good times when they come.

Sadie nodded to him and smiled as his face brightened. "Great it's a date!" Lex said pumping his fist in the air. "Wait, I mean just hanging out because we're just friends. I promised we'd just be friends," He said weakly.

Sadie sighed, "It's a date." She laughed as his face turned a funny shade of pink. Then she quickly ran to catch up with her brother.

* * *

**AN:/**

Also to the Nicadie fans I'll explain why I'm not rushing it. I think the best romances take time to happen. Like Percy and Annabeth, I think they have a way better story than Jason and Piper because Riordan took the time to make them grow with one another's personalities. So for that reason I'm not going to rush Nicadie too much, but there will be some in the coming chapters. I promise : - )

**Summary of Lex and Leo's background story**: Basically they were trained and raised by the House of Life under Iskander's orders, after their mother was "accidentally" killed by Desjardins who thought they were dangerous. After Iskander died they knew Desjardins would kill them so they ran away to their father. Now they live on the run with their father from the House of Life.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7 Part 1:**

"Sadie's going out on her first date! Sadie's going out on her first date!" Bast was screaming throughout the house as Sadie changed in her room.

Sadie was starting to regret telling Bast she was meeting a friend today. Though she doesn't know why Bast assumed it was a date, she'd only said "meeting."

Sadie sighed as she tried on what was probably the 20th outfit in her wardrobe. Finally she settled on a ruby colored t-shirt dress that went to her thighs, a belt, and short black leggings, finishing the outfit with her usual black military boots. For the occasion she had spent the remainder of last night dyeing her hair. She washed out the black and red dye and replaced it with a bleached streak running down her long bangs that were pinned back with a hair clip.

She guessed she looked good enough, she didn't know if she was supposed to dress formally or casual because Lex hadn't told her where they were heading. He had only called her yesterday evening to tell her to meet him on Fifth Avenue at 12PM, the same street the Empire State Building as on. She didn't think they would go there considering the whole issue with them possibly being disintegrated.

Sadie left her room grabbing her purse and her ivory wand, she always had a habit of bringing it everywhere with her because she didn't know when she would need to use it. Sadie found Bast in the living room chatting with Amos and Carter, she gave Sadie a bright smile when she saw her. "You look adorable!" Bast examined her closer

Sadie groaned and turned around. "Wait, where are you going?" Carter asked from the couch.

"My room to change, Bast said I looked adorable," Sadie muttered as she slowly walked to her room.

Bast grabbed her arm to stop her, "You look great, don't mind me! You actually look so grown up now. My little kitten is growing up." Bast looked genuinely sad and Sadie gave her a hug.

"I'm not growing that fast," she muttered. After a few goodbyes and Amos and Carter threatening to kill Lex if he tried to pull anything, Bast and Sadie set off to their destination. After 16 minutes they arrived at their destination precisely at 12:00.

"Bye Bast!" Sadie said as she looked around for Lex.

"Do you want me to park and help you find him?" Bast asked concerned.

"Nah, I can find him on my own. Thanks for the ride Bast, later," Sadie said exiting the car. She waved her goodbyes and Bast sped off. Sadie searched the busy street for a sign of Lex. She knew he wouldn't ditch her here so she walked up and down the street.

As she was going down 5th Avenue for the 2nd time she stumbled to the ground as she was knocked into by some crazy guy running. It took Sadie a moment to realize that the guy had just stolen her purse. Sadie got up quickly and chased after the guy, she didn't mind too much him stealing her money but her wand was in there.

Sadie chased after him for two blocks but the guy was pretty fast. She was just about to lose him then, Wham! The guy who had stolen her purse went flying into the cement. Sadie caught up to him and hastily grabbed her purse. Then she saw Lex standing a few feet away from the thief. He was smiling at her and approached her.

"Hey!" he said as if nothing had just happened a few seconds before.

Sadie watched as the thief stood up shakily before looking at the two of them and running away.

"That was some nice tripping action," Sadie grinned at Lex.

Lex laughed and took her hand in his own, leading her down fifth avenue, "You look beautiful," Lex said making Sadie turn the color of her dress.

"You look nice too," Sadie said as she looked him over. He actually did. Although he had already been quite good looking before, now Sadie could tell he was trying to impress her. His normally messy brown hair was combed neatly, though it was still in his eyes. He wore a thin white long sleeved shirt that made Sadie nearly choke on her gum when she realized she could clearly make out his muscles underneath it. And he had on plaid shorts and black and white Vans canvas shoes.

They walked together hand-in-hand down the busy street. Sadie marveled at the feeling of her first "meeting" with a boy besides her brother, as she held on to his warm hand. "So where are we going?" Sadie questioned for the first time.

AN:/ I've been to New York once, and that was a while ago. So people from New York don't kill me for making every landmark I've ever heard of close to the Empire State building. :-)

"I thought we could go to Central Park, you haven't eaten lunch yet right?" He said a bit worried.

Sadie shook her head, "Nope, I was too nervous." She said before smacking herself on the head for admitting that out loud.

"Me too," Lex said.

They both stopped at a street vendor to pick up food. Sadie chose a hot dog and an ice cream cone and Lex chose a slice of pizza.

They sat next to the lake (an:/ Is there a lake in Central Park? Lol, let's pretend there is) in the middle of Central Park. They both took off their shoes and stuck their feet in the cold water as they ate. Sadie quickly ate her hot dog maneuvering awkwardly as she tried to hold her ice cream cone at the same time. "Perhaps I should have chosen one at a time," Sadie said embarrassed at the quickly melting ice cream cone that she held in her hand. She tried to lick as much of the melting bit as she could but she got a brain freeze.

"Brain freeze?" Lex asked sympathetically as he watched her struggling. Sadie nodded, she was making a mess. Some of her ice cream had dripped onto her dress, much to her disappointment. And somehow she managed to get some on her cheek. She probably looked a mess.

Lex leaned over and kissed her cheek where the ice cream was. "Got it," He said smiling at her his eyes twinkling mischievously.

Sadie blushed from embarrassment, she was starting to suspect that he was doing stuff just to make her blush. Quickly, Sadie leaned over and kissed his cheek much to his surprise, making him blush for once. Sadie stuck her tongue out at him as he touched where she had just kissed him, his face still red.

After they were both finished eating and a small feet water splash fight later they set off to their next destination.

"Do you really think this is such a good idea?" Sadie asked, nervous upon hearing Lex wanted to take a tour of the Empire State building. They were holding hands again as they made their way to the Empire State Building. Lex had insisted they visit it since Sadie had shown interest in going upon hearing Olympus was inside somewhere.

"If we're careful I don't see why not. It's not like we're going in there to start trouble with them," Lex said lightly. Sadie was starting to think the kiss she had given him was affecting his brain. She didn't want to get blasted into tiny pieces by the Greek gods.

Lex held her hand more firmly, they were in front of the building now, "I won't let anything happen to you, I promise. But I do think we should be careful. No magic and don't say their names."

"Their names?" asked a confused Sadie, "What's wrong with saying their names?"

"Names are a source of power, much like the Egyptians. They might take notice of us more if we start saying their names aloud. And the last thing we would want is attention from them," He was smiling but Sadie could tell he wasn't taking the situation lightly.

Sadie trusted him and they entered the building. The building opened up to a large marble hallway. The place was bustling with energy. Businesswomen and businessmen briskly walked past. There were also people in casual clothes looking around.

"Stay here, I'll go see if they can fit us in with a tour group," Lex said before walking away towards the tourist desk.

Sadie looked around observing everything, wondering where Olympus could be in the big building. As she was staring at the people she noticed a guy with black hair and a pale face wearing a skull and cross bones t-shirt, it was Nico. Sadie was about to run over to him when she noticed he was with a group of people.

He was talking to a girl with gray eyes and blonde hair and another boy who had black hair and green eyes. Amongst them was a guy in a wheelchair and a lot of other kids big and small. Some of them looked scary, one girl looked to be 6 feet tall and was very buff.

Something told Sadie to stay away but after seeing Nico disappear so suddenly the other day she didn't want to lose him now. "Nico!" She called as she ran over to him. Nico didn't seem to hear her as he kept walking. Sadie ran up to him, pushing through the group he was with and tapped him on his shoulder brusquely. "Didn't you hear me dirt boy? I was calling for you," Sadie asked.

By now all the people in his group turned their attention to them. "Aww Nico's got a girlfriend," cooed a tall looking boy with brown hair and upturned eyebrows. Sadie thought he looked like an elf.

"She's not my girlfriend," Nico said harshly. Sadie was taken aback at his harsh tone before she remembered that the previous day they had gotten into an argument.

"Yeah, I'm not," Sadie said just as harsh, two could play that game. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay, you vanished yesterday. I thought maybe someone was picking on you." Nico's eyes widened before returning to a glare. She knew then that he knew she had seen him the other day.

"Sadie I have our tickets," said Lex suddenly behind her. She turned around to find Lex who was staring intently at the group Nico was with, his eyes had that dark look from the other day when he revealed his contempt towards the Greeks.

Sadie knew it was probably best to separate Lex from the others and nodded, she turned back towards Nico and her glare vanished as she saw Nico's sudden gloomy face. "I'm glad you're okay Nico," Sadie said sincerely, "See you later."

Nico didn't say anything, he only stared into her eyes. Sadie could see the hurt in them and she felt bad. She watched with a pain in her stomach, as Nico and the group he was with entered the elevator.

Lex and Sadie followed the group tour through the Empire State Building. Although Sadie was trying to get back that light-hearted feeling Lex and her had earlier, she was finding it hard after seeing Nico. She felt bad about hurting him and even got to questioning what exactly she was doing with Lex. She'd told herself since meeting Anubis, that she'd wait for him. But realistically speaking, he was a god and they hadn't even seen each other since then. He hadn't put much effort into their "relationship" either.

"Do you want to escape from the tour group?" Lex asked Sadie as she was spacing out while their tour guide led them through a room of photography.

Sadie could tell she was being a bad date at the point and nodded, smiling at him to make it seem like everything was okay. Lex grabbed her hand and they quickly snuck past everyone. They decided to explore on their own a bit.

As they were walking through some office rooms Lex confronted her about her drastic mood change. "You've been quiet ever since you saw Nico," He said quietly. Sadie could tell that he was peeved. "Did something happen between the two of you?"

"No not really," Sadie said sadly, "Well besides the fact that he probably hates me."

Lex shook his head bitterly and stepped in front of her, stopping her from walking. "He doesn't hate you at all," Lex said, "He likes you a lot."

Sadie stared at the floor, she was even more depressed. "That's why he hates me. He looked so hurt when he saw us together."

Lex winced and sighed, "Do you want to go home?" Sadie was at a dilemma and she knew now she had to stop playing around. She had three options, and that alone puzzled her – she was never this popular with guys in London. But there was Anubis, the mysterious and handsome god of Funerals that had spiked her interest a year ago. They had chemistry, but the separation between the two - physically and mentally- was too great. Nico, if he ever spoke to her again, was a lot like her. They dressed the same way and they both had a stubborn temperament. But he was a demigod apparently, and going by what Lex was saying, they were dangerous. That was probably why the Greeks had been kept secret from them for so long. And finally there was Lex, he was a fighter, handsome, and had a nice personality. But most importantly he was here now wanting her, and there wasn't really anything stopping them from being together.

She took a deep breath and gathered courage to respond, "I don't want to go home," his eyes widened in surprise, "And I'm sorry for acting like a baby the past hour. I was just conflicted, but I've made a decision."

"And that decision is?" Lex asked.

"Well I said I would stay didn't I?" Sadie pointed out.

Lex grinned, "Well I guess you did. So does this mean you're my girlfriend now?"

Sadie blushed and nodded. She could feel butterflies fluttering in her stomach as she replied, "And I guess this means you're my boyfriend now?" Lex smiled nodding at her and then took her hand. They walked around the building for little while before leaving.

* * *

**Chapter 8 part 2:**

_AN:/ If you dislike Salex you can completely skip this part of the chapter. There's not too much plot development. Just some fluff. _

"So how was Olympus," Lex asked once they were outside the building.

Honestly Sadie didn't know how or where Olympus was in the building. They had supposedly went to the top floor without noticing anything, she guessed it was hidden somewhere. "I wish we could've seen it, I bet they have chocolate fountains and candy houses," Sadie said grinning at the idea.

"I don't think Olympus is Candy Land," Lex said laughing.

"Who do you think those people were with Nico?" Sadie asked Lex as they were walking down 5th avenue again.

"Demigods." Lex said, his good mood didn't seem to dimmer from the usual mention of the Greeks, "Do you want to see a movie?" Lex asked suddenly. Sadie didn't have any objections. It was around 3PM and Bast wasn't going to pick her up until 7.

They bought tickets to Kick Ass. Sadie loved Hitgirl, she reminded her of herself. As they were watching the movie Sadie had to keep from laughing out loud as Lex did the yawning-move so he could wrap his arm around her. But she cuddled up on his arm nonetheless. After the movie was over it was around 6PM, leaving them an hour before they had to go. They sat outside the theater on a bench singing the main theme from the movie. Sadie laughed at him butchering the lyrics.

"We have an hour left, anything you want to do?" Sadie asked as she rested her head on his shoulder.

"This is kind of nice. Just sitting here," He said resting his head on hers. They sat there for a while until some old lady told them how cute they looked together. They decided to go somewhere a little more private. They walked back to Central Park and sat on a small hill, laying down on the grass next to each other looking at the stars.

"I had fun today," Sadie said breaking the silence.

"Me too," Lex said softly.

Sadie lay there on the grass biting her bottom lip, she was getting antsy. "Lex…"

"Hmm," He answered.

Sadie sat up on her elbows, "I think this would be a good moment to kiss me now."

Lex jerked up, Sadie could see his eyes widen in the darkness. "Are you sure," He said hesitantly.

Sadie nodded, "If now isn't the right time with the stars shining, a full moon, I don't know what is."

Lex nodded and slowly reached his arm around her so that he was partially covering her and leaned his head forward. Sadie grew tense, her heart raced, the butterflies inhabiting her tummy were having a dance rave, and his body heat was making her dizzy. Then his lips fell onto hers. Sadie's mind went blank as he kissed her, only noting that his warm lips vaguely tasted like Skittles gum.

They kissed for what felt like hours until Sadie pulled her head back slightly to get some air. "Wow, that was nice," She said not caring that her face was probably glowing red in the darkness.

Lex smiled and rested his forehead against hers and pecked her on the lips before laying back on grass.

They both lay there in silence looking at the stars. Sadie was drifting off to sleep when Lex shook her slightly.

"It's almost 7," He said.

"Oh crap, I completely forgot. I guess I should head back now so Bast doesn't go nuts wondering where I am," Sadie said looking at her watch. She panicked when she saw it was 5 minutes until 7. They quickly ran to 5th Avenue and Sadie just made it as she saw Bast pulling up to stop at the curb.

"Well there's my ride," Sadie said lamely. She was still a little brain dead from their kiss earlier.

"I had a great time," Lex said. He then leaned down and gave her a short sweet kiss. "See you Monday," He smiled at Sadie as she awkwardly stumbled into the car.

Once Sadie was inside she zoned out as Bast began to congratulate her. She knew she was going to have to tell Bast everything that had happened in detail and she was not looking forward to the conversation. But at least she could confirm that he did in fact chew Skittles gum.

* * *

**AN:/**

**Thanks for the reviews and story alerts and favoriting. I have a ton of people adding it as their favorites, and it's really exciting to see that. Thank you ^_^**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8:**

When Sadie arrived home she quickly ran inside, wanting to change and to also try avoiding Basts's millions of questions. As she was about to enter her room she saw Carter approaching her with a wild look in his eyes. "Oh no, did you eat too many prunes again, you know they give you the runs," Sadie said laughing at him.

Carter ignored her, "Why didn't you pick up the phone? I called you like 100 times!"

Sadie took out her phone from her purse and looked at the 104 missed calls, "Woah, were you that scared for me? You know Lex wouldn't hurt me." Sadie said confused at her brother's actions.

"No, It's not that. Though if he did hurt you I'd kill him, It's Zia!" Carter said as he pulled at his hair nervously.

"What's wrong? Did she ask you to marry her in her letter?"

"No, she's in trouble. Well I think she's in trouble. Lex must not have read the letter because he was supposed to have given it to me months ago. Zia said she was going to try and find another way besides summoning Ra to fix the mess, she was going to get the help of the Greek Gods. She wanted me to meet her here in New York months ago!" Carter shouted out.

Carter was terrified, he hadn't had the chance to read the letter until the morning due to him helping Sadie and the lack of privacy since Bast arrived. Now he was in full panic mode as he realized something might be terribly wrong with her.

"We have to talk to the Greek gods somehow!" Carter said, "With or without Amos's permission."

Sadie finally recognized the seriousness of the situation and worried for Zia. "But Lex says they're dangerous! We'll be killed instantly, and besides, how do you think we would go about that? Walk right into the Empire State building asking the front desk man what floor Olympus is on?"

"If they're that dangerous than they could've already hurt her! Which means we have to find some way to figure out what they did do to her," Carter said with desperation in his voice, "I don't know about you but I'm going to do whatever it takes to help her."

Sadie nodded, "I'll help don't worry. We're a team remember?" Carter smiled, at least he could always count on his sister. They spent the rest of the weekend planning, since they were going to go after Zia they might as well try and prepare to destroy Apophis too. They both agreed that they couldn't rush into the situation and allotted themselves a week of preparation.

Their plan was to first seek advice from Anubis and their father. They needed to know more about the Greek gods and how to contact them. After they confronted Anubis for help they would go to the Greeks to figure out what happened to Zia. Finally they would get Zia.

* * *

By Monday they were mentally preparing themselves for their long journey come Saturday.

After Bast dropped them off to school they began walking up the front steps. Sadie saw Lex sitting farther up on the stairs and felt heat spreading to her face as she remembered their kiss from the last time she'd seen him. Carter laughed at the display of affection between the two.

"I forgot to ask after everything else that was going on, but how was your date?" Carter asked his little sister.

"It was great," She said blushing slightly at her brother, "See you later!" Sadie quickly ran to where Lex was sitting. He jumped down from the ledge and gave her a hug around her waist and leaned down planting his lips onto hers. They stood there embraced for a while before a teacher came and broke them apart.

"So how was your Sunday?" Lex asked as they walked inside.

Sadie perked up as she remembered she was going to tell him of the update, his kisses were like a drug that made her forget everything. "I just remembered that I have so much to tell you. Can you be a little late for History?" She asked him.

Lex agreed and they snuck into a vacant janitor's closet. It was packed with a lot of items so they had to stand close to each other in the tiny room. Sadie then quickly began describing how Zia had gone to the Greeks for help and how she and Carter were going to the Land of the Dead to get help from Anubis and her father. He was concerned when she told him about their plan to confront the gods.

"I really don't think that's a good idea, they're dangerous," Lex said concerned.

Sadie sighed, of course it wasn't a good idea. It was practically suicide, but this was probably the only way to find Zia. And besides maybe they could use some help from the Greeks to fight Apophis, "It's a stupid idea, but it's the only one we have. Do you have a better suggestion?" Sadie asked sharply.

Lex sighed and shook his head, "I'm just worried," he said. Sadie felt bad about snapping at him, he was just trying to be a protective boyfriend. Sadie wrapped her arms around his neck and stood on her tippy-toes to kiss him. He smiled and leaned into the kiss. They were probably making out for a good 5 minutes before she realized they still had class.

"Like I said before in my apartment that day, I'm willing to follow you anywhere," Lex said to Sadie as they were walking to their class, "I'm not sure about Leo, but I'll go."

"I'm glad to have you on the team then," Sadie said smiling at him. Sadie walked inside and frowned when she realized they were almost 20 minutes late for class. If she had known that she would've stayed in the Janitor's closet the rest of the period.

"Sorry we're late," Lex said to their teacher. Sadie was going to quickly sit at a desk but everyone had turned their desks into little groups.

Their teacher scowled at them. "20 minutes late, I would ask what you two were doing but I don't think I want to know," Mr. Laritate said making both of them blush because now there was actual truth to his fear. "We're in groups today. On Friday you will present your section of life in Ancient Greece."

Mr. Laritate looked around the room and stopped his gaze at Leo, who had been glaring at Sadie the moment she entered the room. "Lex, you can join your sister. They need another person for their group. Sadie you can join Nico. I was going to have him work by himself but he could use a partner."

Sadie tensed, this was going to be awkward. Lex tried to protest to the teacher to let them switch groups but Mr. Laritate was still mad at them.

Nico looked up at her from the floor as she approached the small area he was seated in the back of the class. He was cutting out pictures and pasting them to a white poster board. He looked a bit disheveled, his long hair was a bit wild and dark circles were under his eyes. "Hey," Sadie said as he returned to cutting out pictures.

Sadie read the title on the poster board, "Greek gods, well that's another bizarre coincidence of the day."

Nico furrowed his eyebrows in eyebrow in confusion but continued on his work. "So," Sadie said trying to ease the awkwardness of the situation, "What do you want me to do?"

"Mr. Laritate assigned for me to make a poster board about the Greek gods. Then I was supposed to present my favorite god to the class." Nico said as he focused his attention on his gluing, "I guess you can do whatever you want since I'm just about finished."

"Which god did you chose?" Sadie asked curiously.

Nico looked her in the eyes, his brown eyes just as warm as ever. "I chose Hades, though I don't really consider him my favorite."

"Why did you choose him then?"

Nico shrugged and smiled, "I would be more afraid of him than the others if I didn't choose to present about him."

Sadie laughed, something was bugging her though. Not one for being subtlety she blurted, "So are you a demigod?"

Nico froze and his head rose slowly like the creepy girl from the movie, The Ring. "What did you say?" Nico asked ominously, his dark eyes were narrowed onto hers.

Sadie discovered Nico's creepy side that day. "I asked if you are a demigod?" She said apprehensively. The situation was reminding her of a scary movie involving a person finding out a dark secret and then getting their throat slashed in the middle of the night – perhaps Lex wasn't wrong to be wary of Greeks. She'd definitely be locking her doors when she'd go to bed that night.

Nico nervously looked around and glared suspiciously at her, "How do you know about demigods?"

Sadie smiled slightly, "I knew it!" She couldn't contain her excitement and stuck her tongue out at him and did a small crab-like dance on the floor where she was crouching.

"Shhh!" He hissed at her, he was still looking at her oddly.

Sadie quieted down and moved closer to where Nico was kneeling. "So your dad is Hades then? I guess that describes your gothic tone and pale face and dirt smell."

Nico nodded but then frowned, "Do I really smell like dirt?" He started sniffing himself again and Sadie laughed.

"Yup! But I told you it's a nice smell," Sadie said making Nico blush. Sadie realized they were sitting pretty close to each other and backed away. She had done it again, she was flirting with him without even realizing it. Sadie stayed silent and looked over to where Lex was sitting. He was sitting with his back to her, engrossed in his work.

"So, how do you know about me?" Nico asked again.

Sadie sighed and told him about how she and Lex saw him disappear into a shadow. Then she tried to explain that she was a magician.

"Wait! A magician? Like Harry Potter?" Nico's eyes were wide as he asked her.

Sadie frowned, "No, not like Harry Potter." She twirled a piece of hair before explaining, "Do you know anything about Ancient Egypt?"

Nico nodded, "Wait! You're Egyptian? I only discovered that there were Egyptian monsters over the weekend. But the gods didn't tell us much besides that. So you're half Egyptian god?" Nico asked confused.

"No, not at all," Sadie said. Sadie quickly explained the best she could about the House of Life and the secret society that existed all over the world that no one knew existed. Nico absorbed all the information. His face became serious as Sadie told him about Zia, Apophis, and the sudden influx of Greek monsters attacking Egyptians.

"That's happening to us too. I mean, there are lots of Egyptian monsters attacking us. They keep penetrating our camp's barriers. I was up all night trying to fight them off, but it's hard to even get close to them and when I do our weapons are terrible against them." Nico said a pain in his eyes, "We keep losing more camp members every day."

Sadie didn't know what camp he was talking about she felt her heart breaking for him. He looked so vulnerable. And she knew what it was like to lose the people she loved. "We can help," Sadie said as an idea popped up in her brain. "We need your help and in exchange we can fight those monsters."

"Who is we?" Nico asked, "I thought you said the House of Life was almost in ruins."

"So far it's just Carter and Lex, Leo maybe," Sadie explained, "And then there are our recruits, a little over 12 now. We may not seem like a lot but we are really strong, we've been training them in hope they would help us defeat Apophis."

"Wait, Lex and Leo are magicians?" Nico asked glancing over at where they were sitting.

"Yea, kind of," Sadie said remembering her earlier promise of secrecy, "They can tell you about themselves if they want. They're a bit secretive."

Nico nodded, "Well I'll help." Nico looked at Sadie with a determined look in his eyes, "I don't know if I can help much but I'll try. We can also go to my camp and talk to Chiron, he's sort of our guidance counselor. There aren't too many campers left, most left for Greece yesterday morning. The few of us remaining are just trying to hold up the barriers. And Chiron might know something about Zia. It's a bit risky to go straight to Olympus, the gods don't even like their own children that much."

Suddenly the bell rang. Nico and Sadie began to pick up the scrap pieces of paper and markers. "We should discuss this at lunch with the others. There's still a lot more you should know," Sadie said to Nico after they were finished.

Nico nodded, "See you then." Nico then left in a hurry out of the room.

Sadie was waiting on Lex while he and his group were cleaning up there mess. "How was it?" Lex asked as they left out of the room, "Did he give you a hard time?"

"Nope. I confirmed he's a demigod though. He's the son of Hades, I knew it! I should've bet you $10 for that," Sadie pondered smiling at Lex.

"That's interesting," Lex said. Sadie could tell he was thinking about something else.

"I told him about the situation in Egypt too, about Zia, Apophis and about the House of Life. I didn't tell him about you and Leo though. That's up to you if you want to, I did promise," Sadie told him.

"Thanks," Lex said giving her a quick kiss on her cheek.

They both sat in the back of art class and talked about Nico as the class filled in. After art was over Sadie made her way to math class. Nico was already in the back, she sat next to him. They didn't say much in fear they would be overheard but together they made their way to the lunchroom. They sat down at the table with Carter, Lex and Leo.

* * *

**AN:/**

And yes, Sadie is dating Lex now. But I find from writing this story that her and Nico have more chemistry. At least it's easier for me to write them together, so we'll see how things work out in the future...


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9:**

Sadie sat down next to Lex, Nico sat next to Carter. Sadie and Nico revealed their plan to go to Camp Half-Blood first to get advice from Chiron and help Camp Half-Blood.

"That's ridiculous," Lex and Leo said at the same time. "You honestly think we're going to trust you enough to simply walk into your territory outnumbered? Nice try you Grecus scum," Leo asked Nico angrily. Sadie could tell Nico was taken aback at what Leo was insinuating.

"We're not going to hurt you, a lot of us are really nice. I wouldn't bring you anywhere where you could get hurt. I wouldn't betray Sadie like that! I wouldn't betray any of you like that," Nico replied to an equally pissed off Leo. Leo's usually cold gaze turned to Sadie, making her freeze.

_"I told you we couldn't trust her,"_ Leo said in Greek to Lex. Sadie looked at Lex, having expected to have at least his support now that they were dating – isn't that what boyfriends did? But he looked just as angry as Leo and his gaze was just as cold when looking at Sadie, making her shiver. She realized that the power she saw from Lex that day the Furies attacked them could easily be aimed at her, and that was a battle she was sure she'd lose.

_"Not now Leo," _Lex replied harshly to his twin. "Sadie, this is stupid. We can't trust them-"

"We haven't done anything that proves you can't!" Nico interjected angrily. He didn't look at all bothered by the twin's furious and promisingly deadly glares.

"There has been plenty of things you Greeks have done to deserve our anger," Leo responded.

Nico shook his head, "Listen, up until today I didn't even know about the Egyptians. There's no way we could've done anything knowingly."

Lex shook his head angrily, "It's not just now. There's a much older reason why the Greeks don't have our trust. And they never will." Sadie wondered what he meant and Nico was about to interject when Carter interrupted.

"Shut up all of you," his face was stern and Sadie could tell he was fuming, "Look, Lex and Leo there isn't much else we can do. Even if it is a trap we must try, Zia met with the Greeks – or at least tried to. We need to find out what happened and if that means going into enemy zone then so be it."

"But we're not your enemies!" Nico tried to protest.

Carter sighed and ran a hand through his curly hair, "Honestly Nico, I don't know what to believe. But I do know if you were in our position that you would be wary too. However, I trust you. And I do think you believe nothing will happen to us. Lex, Leo, are you with us? Because I will go alone with Nico if I have to."

"I'm going still Carter," Sadie was determined to go, she'd also leave without the twins if need be. She ignored Lex's shocked stare and Leo's glare.

"Fine, I'll go. I'm not leaving Sadie," Lex finally relented, "But I swear Nico if anyone tries to hurt her I won't hesitate to kill them." His blue eyes met Nico's intense brown eyes.

"I won't let that happen," Nic replied. The two of them glared at each other before looking away.

"Pity you fell for her Lex, I'll go too," Leo said bitterly. Sadie knew from the look she was getting from the hauntingly beautiful girl that the second Lex broke up with her that she would be making Sadie pay for forcing her to come along.

The tension amongst the group was still high as they further discussed travel plans to the camp. "How far away is the camp Nico?"

"Not too far, I guess it's technically upstate New York, I normally shadow travel but I can ask Percy for directions," Nico said embarrassed that he didn't really know the directions to travel there from a car.

"You're 16 right? Can't you drive?" Leo asked Carter.

"No, not yet," Carter said. Then he got an idea, "Bast can drive us!"

"I thought we weren't going to tell Amos? He would definitely not let us go," said Sadie.

"But do you really think she'd let us leave without her knowing? She's going to find out somehow, and I bet she wouldn't tell Amos if we asked her not to." Carter said excited as their plan starting to actually look realistically achievable.

"Who's Bast?" Nico asked confused.

"She's the Egyptian cat god," Sadie explained, "She was sent to by our father to look after us. I thought she was a cat for most of my life."

"Whoa, you have a god for a guardian? Aren't you afraid of her?"

Carter and Sadie both laughed, "We're not afraid of her at all. We respect her though."

"From my understanding Egyptian gods treat humans with more respect and admiration than the Greek gods. Your gods are pretty vile," Lex explained to Nico, "Most Egyptian gods need a host. That creates a close bond with humans; they lived their lives amongst humans during the Egyptian dynasties."

Nico nodded in understanding though from the glare he gave Lex, Sadie could tell he didn't like his gods being insulted.

Everyone deemed that Bast driving them was a good plan. After a few more minutes of random chit-chat the bell rang. Nico took off to gym alone while Lex walked Sadie to her next class.

The rest of the day Sadie's mind was racing with thoughts. The argument between Lex, Leo and Nico combined with knowing they were so close to changing the world, was making her antsy and worried. If Lex and Leo were that volatile at the insulation of going, just imaging what would happen if they actually felt threatened scared her. The last thing they needed was a war with the Greeks.

* * *

After school Sadie walked to the front of the school and noticed Nico leaning against the rail next to the stairs.

"Hey," Sadie said approaching him. Sadie noticed how frail he looked again. She guessed he hadn't had much time to relax because of all the attacks on the camp he went to.

The corner of Nico's mouth rose when he saw her, "Hi."

Sadie leaned back on the railing next to him she was waiting for Lex to meet her outside and didn't have much else to do. "You look like you can use some relaxation time," Sadie said looking at him look at the people walking by.

Nico groaned, "That's an understatement."

Sadie felt bad for him. She never really saw him hang around others at the school besides her, she guessed he wasn't good with people. He did kind of have a natural glower and as they were sitting there it seemed like there was a force field around them that was repelling people from walking too close to them.

"I have an idea, Lex and I were going to go to his relative's café for some free food. Why don't you come with us?" Sadie offered, it wasn't probably the best idea but perhaps the two of them could maybe get used to each other and Lex could see that some Greeks aren't too bad.

Nico gave her a skeptical look, "Aren't you guys dating?"

"How did you know?" Sadie asked, she hadn't told him. She'd been too afraid to even bring it up, and was secretly hoping that she'd be able to hide it from him.

"I saw you two kissing on the front steps. I guess you didn't see me walk by." Sadie cursed at being caught so easily earning her a laugh from Nico.

"Well you can still come. I promise to keep the kissing to a minimal in your presence," She said laughing at his scowl, he finally smiled at her and nodded. Lex arrived on the stairs a few moments later. Lex looked at Sadie and Nico questioningly but he didn't say anything to Nico as he approached Sadie.

"Sorry I'm late. One of my teachers wanted to talk to me about something," Lex said giving her a quick kiss on the cheek.

Sadie blushed and nervously looked at Nico who was clearly displeased as she already broke her promise. "I told Nico he could come with us to your relative's café," Sadie said to Lex hoping he wouldn't be upset – she suddenly remembered his temper from earlier and the look that had made her tremble slightly.

Lex scowled slightly but he quickly regained his smile, "Sure, I don't mind." He said that but Sadie could tell he was peeved. After telling Bast where to pick her up later they set off. They walked in awkward silence to the café. The few times Sadie tried to bring up a conversation failed.

They arrived at a small café. It was called "Kahwa Café."

Lex opened the door for her and she walked inside, Nico trailed behind. The cafe smelled strongly like coffee beans and chocolate. The man at the front counter nodded to Lex as he walked inside and Lex smiled back at him. Lex led her to an office at the back of the café and knocked on the door. "Khala, open the door!" Lex yelled at the closed door. "I hope she's here," Lex said to Sadie after a minute of waiting.

Then they heard footsteps and a few things falling over, the door opened revealing a tall dark skinned woman with long thick curly black hair. "_Ibn ohkti_!" The lady said leaning down to kiss Lex on his cheeks, "You've grown so much since I last saw you. How much have you grown, a foot? And who's this pretty girl?" the lady asked as she looked over at Sadie

"This is my girlfriend Sadie, Sadie this is my aunt. And this is her friend Nico." Sadie looked at the two of them to try and see any similar features, they really looked nothing alike – not that she was expecting to, considering he was a reincarnation.

His aunt laughed, "Welcome Sadie and Nico, you can call me Khala. It means aunt in Arabic."

"Hi," Nico said shaking her hand.

Sadie smiled at her, "Nice to meet you Khala, you have a lovely shop."

She laughed again; Sadie could tell where Lex got his light nature from though. She was just as cheerful as Lex. She had creases on the corner of her eyes and mouth from smiling. It was hard to look at her and not smile with her. "Come into my office, I'm sorry it's a mess. I haven't had the chance to clean up yet," She said motioning them both inside.

The room was small, housing a desk with a computer on one side of the room and a small couch facing it. Sadie had to walk over stacks of books and odd trinkets to get to the couch. Sadie sat down inbetween Lex and Nico. "You've grown so much Lexie," Lex cringed at the name and Sadie laughed and she heard Nico stifle his own laughter. Khala laughed at his embarrassment, "Don't tell me you're too grown up now to be called Lexie. I've always called you Lexie."

Lex smiled, "It's okay Khala, you can always call me Lexie if you want. But…"

"I know, I know, I'm embarrassing you in front of your girlfriend," Khala said laughing at Lex some more. Sadie started laughing even more making Lex squirm further in the couch.

"I like the name, it's cute… Lexie," Sadie said trying to make her boyfriend get over his embarrassment.

"Khala, if I told you something would you promise not to tell my father?" Lex asked when he was back to his usual tan complexion.

Khala frowned slightly and looked at the two of them, "Of course Lexie."

"Good, don't tell baba this but I've told Sadie, her brother and Nico about us. Sadie is part of the Kane family and Nico is a demigod," Lex explained.

Khala looked surprised. "A demigod?" She asked Nico as he nodded at her. Khala smiled at Nico before turning back to Lex, "I trust that you're smart enough to not endanger your family Lex, so I'm okay with this. That's not all is it?"

Lex shook his head and explained how they were going to find Zia and were going to the Greek training camp for demigods to find out where Zia was. Khala absorbed the information and instead of yelling at them or telling them that they were being reckless she just sighed, "I can't stop you if I tried. I hope you will all be safe on your journey."

She then turned around and shuffled around with some objects before turning around again. She placed a cloth and a stack of cash on the desk. "That's a lot of money," Sadie said eyeing the large bills.

"Khala we don't need anything, I just wanted you to know in case something happens to me. So you can tell baba after I'm gone," Lex said frowning at his aunt.

"Nonsense, I don't want you to be unprepared," Khala said frowning right back at him. She took the cloth and unwrapped it. It was a silver and gold dagger.

"Khala I can't take your weapon!" Lex protested, but Sadie could tell he really did want it.

"I've always wanted you to have it," Khala said as she held it in her hand. She walked over from the desk and kneeled in front of Lex, "It's made from celestial bronze*, found only in Olympus." Khala explained to Sadie. Khala placed it in Lex's hands, "I know you already have your own, but I want you to have this. They've been in our family for generations."

Lex wrapped stood up and helped his aunt to her feet. He lifted his shirt revealing a utility belt where he stored his other daggers. He took out his old daggers that were more a bronze color and replaced them with the ones his aunt gave him. "Thank you Khala," Lex said giving her a hug.

Khala returned to her seat and Lex sat back down next to Sadie after placed his old daggers on her desk. "The money is for your travels. You're going to need it in case something happens. I don't mind giving my favorite nephew some money. Besides I believe in you, I know you were sent to us for a reason Lexie," Khala smiled and Lex took the money, stashing it into his book bag.

After discussing their trip, Khala showed Sadie and Nico left after Lex decided to help his aunt in the shop for the evening.

* * *

Once they were outside they decided to walk to the small playground that was next to their school. Sadie sat down on the swings and Nico pushed her.

"Aren't you excited about the trip?" Sadie asked Nico as she tried to go higher on the swings.

"I guess, I'll be honest though. I'm a little worried about how the people at camp might treat you guys. Some of them are nice, but others will try and test you to see how strong you guys are. And I'm not sure if Chiron or the gods will accept the offer. Plus with Mr. I hate all Greeks and his_ lovely _twin sister there, if anything goes wrong I'm afraid everything will be ruined."

Sadie stopped swinging and turned around to face Nico, they were unknowingly afraid of the same thing. She hadn't seen Nico look afraid before and she didn't like it, he was always so tough. He could even take on Lex and Leo's glares without flinching. Without thinking she put her hand in his, giving it a comforting squeeze. "Let's just hope for the best then, it's the only way."

Nico nodded but still looked worried. Sadie again noticed how tired he looked, he had been yawning throughout the day and the dark circles under his eyes looked worse. Nico noticed her worried stare and looked away. Standing to her feet she traced the dark circles before running her hand over his cheek and forehead – muttering a spell she learned from Jazz, a hieroglyphic appeared in the air and she felt Nico shudder under her hand. She pulled it back, hoping her magic wouldn't somehow respond badly with a demigod. Luckily she didn't have to worry long because a big smile erupted on his face.

"Wow, what did you do? I feel great, better than I have in days!" He looked so happy that Sadie couldn't help but smile. Healing magic wasn't her specialty and was exhausting to her. But just seeing him look rested for the first time since they met made her happy.

"It was just a healing spell, no big deal." Sadie lied. She hoped Bast would arrive soon because she felt minutes away from passing out from exhaustion.

Nico must've picked up on her sudden change, because luckily he managed to catch her before her legs gave out. "What's wrong?" Nico asked worriedly. His surprisingly strong arms held her upright before he sat on one of the swings, gently placing her in his lap.

"I'm not a healer. Healing magic is exhausting," She said before resting her head on his shoulder.

"Then don't ever do that again. I'll gladly be tired as long as I don't have to see you like this," Sadie could tell he was genuine and sighed. She felt so content in his arms – it was kind of scary seeing as she had a boyfriend. But she didn't want him to let her go, and luckily it seemed like he didn't either. Feeling safe and secure in his arms she drifted into sleep.

* * *

**Edited 3/10/12 - anything after this is unedited. **


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 11:**

AN:/ The long awaited trip to Camp Half-Blood. Sorry it took so long to get here. 

The next few days passed quickly. As for as the upcoming trip, Sadie and Carter practiced new spells every night with the help of Bast. Sadie even watched AJ and CJ spar, which was probably one of the coolest things she'd ever seen.

When Friday finally arrived Carter and Sadie were stoked. They weren't going to go to school that day; instead they were going to get a fresh start to the day. Bast had rented a van, using some of the money AJ's aunt gave them (they made sure to get it insured).

They had agreed to meet at school and would go to Camp Half-Blood from there. Bast drove up to the school; outside CJ, AJ, and Nico were waiting with their bags. They had agreed to pack some clothes just in case.

"Load the van up!" Bast said as she popped the trunk. The three of them put their bags in the back before entering the van. AJ joined Sadie in the very back. Nico and CJ sat in the middle and Carter sat next to Bast in the passenger's seat.

Nico had gotten directions from someone at camp. It was about a two hour drive to the camp.

Luckily for Sadie's sanity, instead of having to listen to CJ and Carter discussing politics, she and AJ were playing on his Nintendo DSi. He only had racing games, but they were fun. They both tried beating each other's record.

After being on the road for two hours they arrived at a small grassy meadow that was next to a lake. It didn't look like anyone lived near there, much less a whole camp. But Nico said that the camp was hidden from others due to the Mist.

Bast decided to stay in cat form to not arise too much attention.

Sadie stretched and walked shakily on her legs, she didn't like sitting for so long in a cramped space. Luckily most of the journey had been monster free.

"That was so boring," Nico said yawning as he stretched his arms. Nico had absolutely nothing to do during the trip, he was stuck listening to CJ and Carter talking about Ancient Mediterranean politics and Sadie and AJ screaming at each other as they played some video games.

"You should've joined the racing fun," Sadie said to him grinning as she walked behind him up the small grassy hill "I beat AJ 20 times!"

"Psh, no you didn't. The last 10 times you cheated," AJ said giving her a mock glare. Sadie playfully swatted his arm and stuck her tongue out at him.

"I didn't cheat, you just suck."

Nico groaned, he had spent 2 hours listening them flirt and argue with each other. Although he and Sadie were on comfortable terms he still felt jealous every time he looked at them together. He knew nothing would come out of being angry though as he tried to contain his fatal flaw. But at the same time he wasn't going to give up on Sadie. He could tell that she liked him.

Sadie grew nervous as they approached the top of the hill. She still wasn't completely sure if the camp would be welcoming to them, but she trusted Nico not to lead them to their deaths.

"So where is it?" CJ said as they all looked around.

"You mean you still don't see it?" Nico said.

Sadie looked around to try and see what he was talking about, "Nope, anything particular we should be seeing?"  
Nico pointed to the very top of the hill, "There's an arch there that says Camp Half-Blood, and there's a dragon."

That trust Sadie had talked about earlier was starting to dissipate, "A dragon? A fire breathing dragon?"

Nico nodded, "It's okay. It won't hurt you guys, it's just a baby."

When they reached the top of the hill Sadie looked down to see an endless meadow that led into a forest. She saw Nico stop and then mutter something under his breath. Sadie blinked and when she opened her eyes the landscape changed. She could see cabins in the distant, groups of people in orange t-shirts, and a baby dragon glaring at them.

Nico rushed over to the dragon and held the chain that was around its neck, "If you don't want to get eaten, go now."

They all ran past the dragon further down the hill, Nico dropped the chain and ran after them when they were far enough away from it. Then Nico led them through the camp.

Sadie saw people giving them weird looks but for the most part everyone just looked tired and battered. Along the way there were lots of cabins set up with a different theme. The ones in the center were big and beautiful, one had a trident and lots of sea decorations on it, another was painted blood red, and there was one that glinted gold in the sunlight. Sadie saw a dark black cabin in the back; she thought it would fit Nico perfectly.

Nico led them inside a big blue house. There was a pretty Asian girl sitting on a bench with her arm in a sling, she didn't notice them enter the house. Nico gave her an uneasy look and motioned for them to quicken their pace. Sadie didn't know why he wanted to avoid her, but she didn't feel like finding out.

However their luck was bad that day, "Nico, who are those people with you?" The girl said accusingly. Her eyes narrowed on them and Sadie had a bad feeling about her.

"We're going to see Chiron, Drew, and it's none of your business," Nico said firmly to the girl.

The girl rolled her eyes, "It _is _my business sweetie."

Sadie noticed Nico fall into a trance as he repeated, "Yeah, it is your business."

The girl got up from her chair and walked over to Nico and looked him right in the eyes, Sadie almost got caught up in the trance too. Her eyes were hypnotizing.

"Now sweetheart, tell me what you are up to," Drew said to Nico in a disturbingly sweet tone.

Nico was about to answer when two boys came charging out of a room knocking Drew to the floor.

"Travis! Connor! You're going to pay for that!" Drew screamed at the two boys as she sat pouting on the ground.

Then a man in a wheelchair came out of the room the two guys had just barged out of. The man looked like a stereotypical English teacher. He had dark brown hair and a beard.

Nico walked up to him angrily, "Chiron, Drew is doing that charmspeak thing again!" He said yelling at the man in the wheelchair.

"Drew, you do realize it's not polite to use charmspeak. Remember the talk we had before?" Chiron said scolding Drew who was still on the floor scowling at Nico.

"I was just asking him who these people are! I think I have the right to know for my own safety. You can never trust a kid of Hades," Drew said in a matter-of-fact tone. Sadie really didn't like her, she was too snotty.

Chiron looked at them and frowned at us, "Drew you can go now, you're healed. The rest of you can join me in the rec room."

Drew reluctantly got up from the ground and as she was leaving she purposefully bumped into AJ and winked at him flirtatiously before strutting out the door. If AJ hadn't grabbed Sadie's arm to stop her she would've punched her.

Sadie turned around still peeved and followed the others into the room. The rec room was pretty big, it had a ping pong table and arcade machines. They all took a seat around the ping pong table.

"What brings you children of Egypt here?" Chiron said getting straight to the point.

Carter spoke up, "We're here for a few reasons. The first is that we are looking for a girl. Our friend, her name is Zia. She wrote me a letter saying she was going to seek the help of the Greek gods. Nico told us you might be able to help us."

Chiron looked at Nico questioningly before addressing Carter. "The other thing?" he asked.

"I'm not sure if you know but Egypt is in serious trouble," Carter began. Chiron nodded and Carter continued, "We've also heard that you guys have also been having trouble with monsters. Although the House of Life doesn't want to work together with the Greek gods we do. We have over 40 recruits who would be willing to help. We know about Gaia and we think maybe Apophis and her are using the fact that Greeks and Egyptians aren't getting along to their benefit."

Chiron paused a moment before speaking, absorbing everything Carter had just said. "I believe you may be right. Although I'm not sure the gods will be happy about this, we do need as much help as we can get to help fight. Our weapons aren't as useful against the Egyptian monsters, and we simply don't know how to fight them. Our fighting styles are different."

"And Zia?" Sadie added, speaking for the first time since entering the room.

"You're in luck; the gods did mention to me that they were approached by a magician. I believe she was in the Roman camp for a while. However, she left for some reason unknown to me to go to the Land of the Dead."

Sadie saw Carter's face fall at the news. She knew he had been hoping she was in the camp. Now they'd have to make a trip to the Land of the Dead to find out where she was. But that was tricky considering they just had promised to help the Greeks fight Egyptian monsters.

As if he were reading her mind AJ spoke up, "Carter, can't you guys call your recruits here to help the camp and we go to the Land of the Dead to find Zia?"

Sadie looked at Carter to see if he agreed. Carter seemed pleased with the idea.

"Either you or Sadie is going to have to stay behind to help the recruits organize," CJ said.

Sadie knew CJ was right, but that would mean her and Carter would have to split. Although they may not have grown up together, they had never split up for more than a day the past 2 years. There was no knowing when either would return.

"I'll go," Carter said, "AJ you can stay here with Sadie. You can come me if you want CJ, if you don't I understand."

"I'll go with you, it's dangerous going alone," CJ said.

"How soon do you think you can get the others here?" Chiron asked them.

Carter groaned, "It'll take a while. At least a few days." Carter was anxious to get started with finding Zia.

"You can go Carter. Me and AJ can gather everyone," Sadie said to her brother, sympathetic of his situation.

"Great, when do you want to leave CJ?" Carter asked; he was ready to go right then.

"Now's good," CJ said. If she was at all nervous at all about going to the Land of the Dead, Sadie couldn't tell. Sadie, while at first, didn't really like CJ. But over the past few days she'd grown to respect her more. She was very level headed, both her and AJ were.

Chiron dismissed himself from the room taking Nico with him as they began to organize. Bast transformed herself back into her human form. Sadie insisted that Bast go with Carter instead of staying at the camp, Sadie knew him and CJ were probably going to need a lot more help than her and AJ.

Bast used the computer in the rec room to book the three of them flights to New Orleans. They would leave the camp at 8 pm to catch the 11pm flight. That left them 8 hours of exploring camp Half-Blood. AJ and Sadie were going to stay at camp where they would set up a signal alerting all of the recruits.

After they were all well organized they decided to venture out into the camp. Bast returned to her cat form and they exited the barn house. Nico was sitting on the front steps of the porch waiting for them. He looked up at them and Sadie could tell he was nervous about something.

"I tried to stop them from finding out that you guys are Egyptian magicians, but Drew made me with her charmspeak. She can influence just about anyone with it." NIco said panicked, "And, now they all want to play a game of capture the flag against you."

Sadie looked behind him to see the girl she had recognized from the day they were in the Empire State Building. She was just as buff and huge as Sadie remembered.

"Nico, tell them they have an hour to prepare," the girl said before turning around and stomping off.

"That's Clarisse, daughter of Ares. She likes to fight, and she's really good at it," said Nico.

"They want us to play capture the flag?" CJ said in a bored tone, "Isn't that a little childish?"

"Well it's more physical, we're not allowed to maim but we're allowed to punch and we have jails," Nico explained, "We have other games, but those are a lot more dangerous. Like Chariot races, a lot of campers apparently died from that."

Sadie groaned, she didn't like randomly fighting. She wasn't really good at it; she was mostly just good at spells.

"Can we use magic?" AJ asked.

"I guess," Nico said shrugging, "I think the kids of Hectate use magic too, so it's fair."

"I hate fighting for nothing," Sadie said, "Can I sit this one out?"

"Of course, none of you have to fight. Though I'm pretty sure the others will try on their own terms. A lot of the other campers just want to size you guys up. Some of them *cough Clarisse cough* are a bit offended that they need outside help."

"So we're going to fight the whole camp? That doesn't seem very fair," Carter said frowning at the idea of facing against so many people. His magic and combat skills had improved but even he understood that was asking too much.

"No, it'll be even. I think it's going to be me, Clarisse, and Will. Travis will have to sit out."

Nico showed them around the camp while Bast went off in cat form to stalk some mice and bunnies. They visited the stables, the climbing wall, and the armory. A lot of the campers ignored them, only a few casually said hello. Most just seemed to be afraid of Nico.

As they were sitting around in the dining pavilion they heard the speaker calling for everyone to gather near the forest.

It seemed like all the campers had turned out to watch the battle. Sadie noted that the bigger and buffer campers were sending her pretty nasty looks, which she happily returned back to them.

Chiron motioned for everyone to pay attention to him, "As you probably know we have some visitors to our camp. Thus we are going to have a special Capture the Flag match. The team that manages to bring their opponent's flag across the border wins. Remember no maiming or killing, or you'll lose your dessert privileges." Chiron said to the two teams.

Sadie cringed at the maiming or killing part, she was especially glad she decided to sit this one out.

Nico joined his other two team members as CJ, AJ and Carter with Sadie listening set up a strategy.

AJ happened to be a great battle strategist. Because the game was already flawed, due to them being in unfamiliar surroundings, they decided on CJ and AJ attacking the other team members with Carter standing guard around the flag.

"You better not get hurt too badly out there," Sadie said to AJ.

AJ grinned, "I won't, I promise." He gave Sadie a kiss on the cheek.

Sadie sat back amongst the others as the teams set off into the forest.

"So he's your boyfriend?" someone said to Sadie as she was sitting in the grass. Sadie turned around to see Drew staring at her with a fake smile on her face. Sadie could tell Drew really didn't like her and as far as Sadie was concerned, the feeling was mutual.

Sadie smiled back at her in the same fake way, "Yeah, he's my boyfriend so you can stay away from him. Okay?" She turned around away from Drew.

Drew sighed and sat down next to Sadie "I wonder why he's going out with a girl like you," she said as if she were really interested in knowing the answer.

Sadie wanted to punch her so hard in her pretty little face, but she practiced self-restraint.

A guy that Sadie recognized as the elf dude from the Empire State building approached them and sat down in front of Sadie. He had light curly brown hair, dark blue eyes, and upturned eyebrows which made him look like he was forever up to something.

"Hello, I'm Travis," Travis said to Sadie shaking her hand. Then he looked at Drew and frowned, "Is that really the way to treat our guest?"

Drew glared at him but didn't say anything.

"So how do you like Camp Half-Blood? It's too bad you couldn't come before the monsters were invading, it's normally a lot more cheery," Travis said to Sadie.

Sadie thought the camp looked fun, but it was still pretty foreign to her. "It's okay, I'm not much of a fighter though so I doubt I'd fit in here. I prefer spells."

Travis's eyes twinkled and he revealed her wand to her, "You do magic with this? What kind of magic can you do? Bring back people from the dead? Do you know how to mummify a body, could you teach me?" He started waving it around and started chanting jibberish.

Sadie was in shock that he had her ivory wand in his hand, "Woah! How did you get that? _When_ did you get that?"

Travis grinned, "I am the son of Hermes. I snatched it while you looked at the field."

Sadie checked her purse. Along with her missing wand was the $40 her brother had given her. She held out her hand and glared at him, he sighed and gave her back the $40 but remained holding onto the wand.

She tried to figure out in her head who Hermes was before a realization, "The god of thieves!"

"Yup," Travis said proudly.

Sadie glared at him, "I don't know how Thoth got mixed up with your dad then."

Travis looked at her confused, "Whose Thoth? And he got mixed up with my dad?"

"Thoth is the Egyptian god of wisdom, writing, and the crescent moon. Nothing at all like the god of thievery," Sadie said to Travis..

"He sounds more like a mixture of Athena, Apollo, and Artemis."

Sadie shrugged, she didn't know off the top of her head what they were the Greek gods of. "Thoth said back in ancient times him and your dad were confused a lot. The Egyptians even named a city after your dad in mistake, they thought he was Thoth," Sadie explained to him.

Travis smiled, "Well our dad is pretty awesome. It probably wasn't a mistake."

Sadie frowned at him and stuck her hand out again motioning for her wand.

"Aww, do some magic," Travis gave a fake pout as he held her wand behind his back.

"I will if you give me back my wand," Sadie answered.

Travis eyed her suspiciously but gave her back her wand. Sadie took it and stuck it back in her bag and sat on it.

Travis scowled at her, "You lied!"

"I don't have any cool spells to show you. I can't bring people back from the dead, I can't mummify anyone and I certainly can't bring people back from the dead. Though I guess you could ask my dad, he's hosting Osiris, the Egyptian god of the underworld"

"You're a demigod?" Travis asked forgetting her refusal to do magic.

"No, it's kind of a long story. But basically my dad died while hosting Osiris and is now living, erm residing, in the underworld," Sadie explained. She guessed the story did sound a bit odd. "I don't think we have demigods in Egypt, we just have hosts and then children of the hosts… It's a bit hard to explain."

Travis didn't look like he understood anything but he smiled and nodded dumbly.

Sadie returned to watching the match. It didn't look like much was happening; she guessed they were all deep within the forest. She hoped all of them would be okay, it didn't seem like a lack of dessert privileges was really going to help limit the maiming and killing.

After an hour had passed all the campers were visibly antsy. According to Travis most matches, especially ones this small, didn't take this long to end.

Suddenly a flash appeared, and AJ, CJ and Clarisse all became visible. It was AJ and CJ against Clarisse who had their flag. Clarisse didn't seem bothered at all at having a two against one match. She just glared wickedly at them. The border was only a mile away in front of Clarisse.

Sadie saw AJ motion towards CJ and CJ backed off. Leaving it a one-on-one battle, AJ versus Clarisse.

* * *

**AN:/ Once again thanks to everyone who is reviewing/favoriting/alerting. This story gets an average of +120 views each chapter. That's really exciting and I hope to keep it around that level.**

At **ILuvZarter**: Lol, I wish my teachers would lay back on the tests. I think I have a geology exam next week :( It's like they're trying to make me not finish this story before May. Sadly after this chapter it'll be a while before I update. Expect an update on Friday. Sorry!


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 12:**

AJ circled Clarisse, stalking her like a lion would its prey. Then he charged. He thrashed at her ruthlessly with his daggers as Clarisse blocked. Then he leapt away from her as she pulled out a spear from her belt.

Sadie noticed electricity flowing through the ends. Sadie wasn't sure if electrocuting a person counted as maiming, but Sadie was worried from the look Clarisse was giving AJ that she didn't care.

Clarisse charged AJ this time. All AJ could do was duck and try to avoid her attacks.

Clarisse still wasn't backing down, she kept attacking AJ. Eventually she managed to hit him with the electric end of the spear on his arm. Sadie could see him wincing in pain but he kept up his defenses.

AJ then attacked Clarisse again, this time he was aiming for her leg. Sadie saw him give Clarisse a dark grin before punching her very hard on the leg. Clarisse didn't look like she was one who normally showed pain, so it was surprising to see her fall to the ground on her bruised leg and grimace.

"You're going to pay for that pretty boy," Clarisse said in a menacing tone. Her teeth were gritted and her eyebrows were furrowed.

"This battle is already over," AJ said giving her a dark smile before charging again.

Clarisse tried to block his attacks but AJ kicked her hard on her injured leg making her drop her spear.

Sadie and the others were in shock at what they witnessed. Clarisse was sending deathly glares at AJ as she clutched her injured leg.

Then Sadie saw Carter running like a maniac as skeletons with swords chased after him. Sadie almost laughed at the sight. The whistle blew and Sadie knew that his team had managed to win.

Sadie smiled and quickly ran up to her brother giving him a pat on his head in approval, "Good job wise guy," she said to him.

Sadie then saw a scowling Nico exiting the forest. He approached Carter and gave his approval, "That was a good fight; you managed to outrun my soldiers."

Carter smiled at all the attention he was getting, "You put up a nice fight. It was terrifying seeing the earth open up and skeletons coming out."

Sadie went over to where AJ was standing. He and CJ were talking to Clarisse about their fight.

"I assumed you two were just all looks and no bite," Clarisse said, "However next time I'm going to completely destroy you."

AJ gave her a cocky smile, "Definitely. And then I hope you still won't be hurt. Your left leg is injured, am I right?"

Clarisse reddened and scowled, walking away with a few tough looking guys whom Sadie guessed were her brothers.

Sadie then realized why AJ had attacked her leg so much. He had taken advantage of the injury. She wasn't too happy about that, it seemed unnecessarily cruel. She was glad that Clarisse didn't seem permanently injured though.

Sadie didn't want to make too much of a fuss about things and congratulated both him and CJ on their win.

AJ, CJ and Carter got a lot more attention diverted to them the rest of the afternoon. A lot of campers would come up to them and ask them to show them their daggers or ask about Egyptian life.

Sadie stayed back and let them bask in the attention.

"How did you think I did?" Nico asked Sadie as he sat down next to her at the guest table in the dining pavilion.

Sadie didn't really know how he fought. She had only seen the skeletons he summoned. Though, Carter told her that Nico was pretty amazing at fighting, he had more than just the ability to summon skeletons. "I wish I could've seen more, Carter said you were amazing."

Nico smiled. "Well I don't know about amazing, but I guess I was pretty awesome. Well, I guess you can say I'm amazing," Nico said in a playful tone.

"Way to stay modest dirt boy," Sadie said playfully nudging him.

"Are you guys going to stay the night?" Nico asked still smiling at her.

Sadie had forgotten that they hadn't told Nico of the change of plans. She told him about Zia and CJ, Carter and Bast's plan to go to the Land of the Dead.

"Since you're spending the night you're going to need somewhere to sleep. You can sleep with me," He said before blushing. "I mean! Not like that!"

Sadie laughed at his embarrassment from his miswording.

"I meant do you want to stay in my cabin? There are a few beds in there so you don't have to share a bed with me. I mean you can't share a bed with me!" Nico was bright pink, making Sadie laugh even harder as he sat there in his usual black skull and crossbones t-shirt and black pants. She thought he looked funny and a cute when he let his guard down.

"I'll ask AJ where he wants to sleep," Sadie said after she finally stopped laughing.

Nico's face darkened and he nodded, "Oh okay, tell me what you decide later..." Then he got up and left Sadie sitting there.

Suddenly Sadie could smell a familiar perfume scent around her, Drew.

"What do you want this time Drew?" Sadie said without turning around.

Drew sat next to her and Sadie looked at her to see her with an almost maniacal grin on her face. "Oooooo! Does your boyfriend know that you have a crush on Nico?" She said enthusiastically.

Sadie blushed at the accusation. "I don't know what you're talking about," she lied.

"Sure you do," Drew said, her grin becoming bigger, "If I had a boyfriend like yours I wouldn't be two-timing with some loser. That's just me though, some girls can't help themselves."

Sadie glared at her, "I'm not two-timing with anyone, Nico and I are just friends."

"Just friends, right… You know if you keep telling yourself that it doesn't mean that it'll come true, love doesn't work that way," Drew said giggling before she got up and left leaving a miserable Sadie sitting on the bench taking in what Drew had just told her.

Sadie found AJ amongst a group of people. Sadie didn't want Drew's words to bug her as much as they did, but they had made her feel guilty. She wondered if she was being a good girlfriend. AJ never even flirted with other girls, and Sadie was doing it all the time with Nico.

She decided she was going to be there for him more. And to be a good girlfriend, she was also going to make an effort in trying to not get to comfortable with Nico. She still wanted them to be friends, but she couldn't allow nothing more to happen. It wasn't fair to AJ.

Carter, CJ and Bast left before dinner to make their flight.

Chiron told Sadie and AJ that they could sit at the big table with him and a girl named Rachel.

Sadie took a seat opposite of Rachel and next to AJ. Sadie thought Rachel seemed like a nice person. She had crazy red hair, freckles and green eyes. Sadie liked her eccentric look; she wore a large pink t-shirt with a hoodie that had ears on the hood, and jeans that were scribbled on.

"Hey," Sadie said to her as Rachel was absentmindedly drawing pictures into her food.

Rachel looked up at her and gave her a quizzical look, "You two are the Egyptian magicians."

It wasn't a question but Sadie nodded, "Why do you sit at this table? Don't you have a parent who's a god too?"

"I don't have one. I'm a normal mortal shockingly. But I have a special skill in divination so Lord Apollo made me the Oracle of Delphi."

"You're like my mother!" Sadie exclaimed. She knew that people who had the power of divination were rare, her mother being the only one for a while. It was exciting to find another person with the trait.

Rachel looked at her confused.

"She has the ability of divination. I wonder if it's different than yours though," Sadie pondered.

Rachel looked at her interested, "Does she make lots of prophecies?"

Sadie honestly didn't know. Besides what she learned about her mother predicting chaos would return and destroy the earth if the House of Life didn't accept the gods.

"I honestly don't remember," Sadie said sadly, "She died when I was 6-years old."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know," Rachel said giving her a sympathetic look.

Sadie didn't like the pity she always received when she told people this, people would always say they were sorry. She understood they meant well but there was nothing to be apologetic for. Her mother's death was tragic and if everything worked out, it would not be in vain.

"It's okay. What sort of prophecies have you made?" Sadie asked trying to change the subject.

"Well currently there's a prophecy that the world may end in fire or storm. That's why we sent 7 half bloods to fight the giants," Rachel explained, "I think it was a pretty good prophecy for my first few minutes on the job. I also knew that you were coming here."

Sadie wondered if somehow the two prophecies were connected.

"My mother saw that in the future chaos would consume the world if the House of Life, they're like the leaders of magicians, didn't accept the Egyptian gods," said Sadie, "If the world fell to chaos it would sort of be like the world ending in fire or storm right?"

Rachel shrugged, "I honestly only have feelings about some things that a prophesize. I can only see and help so much. In this case, I have a feeling that we are somehow connected. Like us being here is important somehow. But I'm not entirely sure."

Rachel drifted off as she spoke and went back to drawing pictures into her meal. Sadie peeked at her plate to see that she arranged her ketchup and mustard to look like fire surrounding a decapitated hot dog.

"Well that's creepy," Sadie whispered to AJ.

After dinner Chiron showed them to their rooms in the Big House. Sadie drifted off to sleep and dreamt of fire trying to consume a large hotdog as people screamed in the distance.

(Shifting to Nico!)

It had been two days since Carter, CJ and Bast had left. AJ and Sadie had managed to contact all of their recruits who would arrive later in the day. Though the need for the recruits had decreased; after the magicians had arrived no monsters had attacked the camp.

Nico woke up depressed. He had the worst luck in the world, his mother was killed when he was 11-years old, which was over 70 years ago, his sister was also dead, his dad was unapproachable, he was stuck eating cereal every day, and the girl he liked was already dating someone else.

He woke up early and headed to the showers so he wouldn't run into anyone. After he was finished he set off to the dining hall, hoping it would be empty. Of course because he had the worst luck in the world he just had to run into the one person who he was angry at, AJ.

"Hey," AJ said smiling politely at him. Nico hated how AJ treated him nicely, as if they couldn't just hate each other and be done with it. Nico also wondered if it was just an act, he had a feeling AJ was only being nice to him because of Sadie.

Nico nodded at him politely and grabbed a plate of food and then he went over to the fire and picked out sausage and eggs as an offering to his father. He ate quickly so that he could go somewhere private.

After finishing his meal Nico walked through the forest, embracing the darkness and mysterious sounds that would've scared anyone but him. He sat down next to a tree, deciding to skip the classes at camp and another day at school.

As he was drifting off to sleep he heard sudden noise and someone was screaming his name. Nico opened his eyes to see Percy, Jason and Annabeth in front of him. They weren't really in front of him though, they were using Iris messaging.

"_Nico? Is that you?"_ Annabeth asked him frantically.

"Annabeth! And yeah, it's me Nic. You did call me right?" said Nico.

Nico saw Annabeth smack Percy's arm, _"See I told you to specify who you wanted to talk to, you can't just say "Camp Half-Blood!""_ Annabeth said screaming at him, _"That was our last drachma Seaweed Brain!"  
_

Nico noticed the panic and worry on their faces, something was terribly wrong, "What's up you guys? You all seem like you're in trouble."  
_  
"That's because we are Nico. We needed to talk to Chiron but I guess you'll have to do. You know the Egyptian monsters that were attacking us at camp? Well there are a ton of them here. It's almost like they're teaming up with the giants, we're not going to make it if this keeps up,"_ Annabeth said to Nico, panic evident in her voice.

"_We need backup,"_ Jason said from the back as he looked over his shoulder nervously.

"Wait,what about the prophecy? It only called for 7, that's why the rest of us couldn't go. I don't think we can go against the prophecy, can we?" Nico asked.

"_We will die here if we don't get help, and the giants and Gaia will destroy the earth. At this point we have to go against the prophecy,"_ Annabeth said desperately. Nico heard a ding and the three of them groaned, _"We don't have much time, tell Chiron to send help Nico, you guys are our only hope."_

Then the Iris message dissolved. Panicked, Nico got up from the ground and ran as fast as he could to the Big House. His friends were in danger; it was probably only days before they would become too overwhelmed with monsters.

Running inside he shouted for Chiron. Sadie entered the hallway looking at him confused, "Chiron's not here. He said he had to leave for Olympus all day."

"We have to go find him! It's an emergency," Nico said grabbing Sadie's wrist and ran out the house dragging her with him.

Sadie managed to knock him off of her by the time they reached the top of Half-Blood Hill.

"What's your problem?" Sadie asked angrily as she rubbed her wrist where he had grabbed her roughly.

Nico scolded himself; he had gotten ahead of himself. "My friends are in trouble. They messaged me just before and told me that Egyptian monsters are starting to team up with the giants. They're not going to survive if we don't help them and the earth might not either. I have to tell Chiron that we have to go help them, and if he's at Olympus that's where we have to go."

Nico was relieved when Sadie said she understood and would go with him.

* * *

**AN:/ Sorry this took longer than usual to post. **

At** iHATEfangirls**: Well we still don't know who would really win because of Clarisse's injuries. I'd say they're almost even, but with Clarisse being stronger and AJ being more tactful. I want to write another fighting scene in the future though, so maybe we'll see! I think the Egyptians would be a bit more strategic in battle due to them using magic along with fighting. Thanks for reviewing! :)

At **ILuvZarter**: It'll kind of be a few chapters before Annabeth and Percy come. And I was thinking about having the hunters come to camp to also have a battle but I'm not sure exactly where to put them because of the order of events. But I'm definitely going to have the hunters appear, just not sure when.

Thanks for favoriting/alerting/reviewing! ^_^


	12. Chapter 12

Nicadie lovers rejoice! (kind of)

**Chapter 13**:

Nico felt he probably should've planned more. After shadow traveling with Sadie to a place about an hour away from the Empire State Building, he was tired. It had been a while since he shadow traveled while helping someone else. And now they were over an hour away by foot, and without money.

"Too bad I didn't think to grab AJ," Sadie said as she looked in her purse. She only had $1.

Nico scowled at the mention of his rival, "We better start walking then, walking is going to take a while."

They walked in silence. Nico noticed that Sadie had been treating him odd for the past few days. Whenever he would talk to her she would find some excuse to leave. Nico didn't know why he grabbed her to come, it wasn't like he couldn't go by himself. And if he hadn't brought her he could've shadow traveled a lot closer to the Empire State Building.

"Are you just going to not say anything the whole way there?" Nico asked her quietly.

"There's nothing to talk about," Sadie replied giving him a nervous glance. Nico sighed, he knew this was going to be a very long walk.

They had been walking for 30 minutes when Nico heard a strange thumping sound. He unclipped his sword as the thumping sound got closer. Nico saw Sadie reach into her purse and pull out a black stick. As he wondered what she was going to do with that a Cyclops appeared.

"Woah, what is that?" Sadie asked staring at the one-eyed creature.

Nico grabbed her wrist, "It's a human eating Cyclops and if you want to live you better run."

Sadie understood the urgency and they both ran. The monster continued to chase them though. Nico tried to lose it by traveling down a few allies to no avail. The monster wasn't giving up. Nico was worried. He was good at fighting with his sword but he was still pretty drained from shadow traveling earlier.

"We're going to have to fight this thing," Sadie told him.

They turned around and Nico managed to summon a few skeleton soldiers. They were able to give the Cyclops a few injuries but nothing serious.

Nico saw a blue symbol appear in the air. The monster stumbled a bit.

"Was that you?" Nico asked Sadie in wonder.

Sadie nodded, but she remained focused on the monster. Nico heard her say, "Ha-di," or something similar to that. The monster once again stumbled and looked like it was in pain.

Nico knew he had an opening. He charged the monster with his sword drawn, slashing him through the stomach. The monster disappeared into a golden dust.

"Well that was interesting," Nico said to Sadie grinning that they'd managed to destroy it, "Nice whatever you just did!"

Sadie laughed, "You were great too. I've heard of Cyclopses before, wasn't there one in that story with Odysseus?"

"Yeah, my friend Percy met him. His name is Prometheus."

They were both celebrating their victory as they reached more of the metropolitan area of New York. They were almost at the Empire State Building.

Nico began to worry for the first time about bringing Sadie. He wasn't sure what reception she would receive from the gods, he hoped with his life that it would be good.

"Before we go in there there's a few things you should know," Nico told Sadie as they stood outside.

"First, bow to Zeus when you enter before doing anything else. It's kind of rude if you don't. Second, don't talk an unnecessary amount, that means no back talking the gods. They get really angry at that sort of stuff," Sadie nodded as she absorbed the information.

"If you follow that, you may not get incinerated," Nico said half-joking, "They only recently began to contact us. Zeus made them stop contacting us for a while."

"Why?" Sadie asked as she grabbed a piece of gum from her purse and stuck it into her mouth. Nico thought she looked a bit nervous and he took her hand in his in an effort to comfort her.

Sadie looked at him suspiciously but didn't pull away. Nico smiled to himself as he took in the feeling of her warm hand. It was soft and not too moist but at the same time not too dry, a nice temperature. Nico blushed as he realized what he was thinking, hoping that he was developing some sort of hand fetish.

"They were mad at Percy for turning down their offer to be a god and Hera was kidnapped, well godnapped."

Nico approached the counter and spoke to the man sitting there. "I would like to go up to the 600th floor, to Olympus."

Sadie looked at him like he were nuts. The man looked like he was about to protest so Nico upped the stakes, "Unless you want an army of the dead walking around in here, I suggest you let us up."

The man at the counter gulped and handed them a pass.

"Nice job there dirt boy, I think you terrified him," Sadie said congratulating him. Nico smiled to himself at being able to impress her.

"I happen to be very scary," he said jokingly. Though it was pretty true, a lot of the kids at school stayed away from him. And the new campers at Camp Half-Blood tried to avoid him and shrunk whenever he looked at them. It was annoying, but he had to admit there were some perks to being naturally creepy.

They entered the elevator and Nico inserted the keycard into the slot. The elevator shot up very fast and then the doors opened. Nico watched in amusement as Sadie stepped out the elevator with her mouth open and wise wide.

"WOW! This place is so cool." Sadie said excitedly, "It'd be cooler if there were chocolate fountains somewhere and candy houses, but this is not bad at all."

Nico laughed, "Yea, I guess that's one way to describe Olympus. We should find Chiron now."

They walked down a main avenue, stopping sporadically to ask gods on the street if they had seen Chiron. They walked for 10 minutes without coming closer to finding Chiron.

"Maybe he finished early and went back to camp," Sadie said as they were walking.

"Maybe," Nico said disappointedly. The longer he waited, the more danger his friends were in.

"NICO!" someone yelled from behind them. Suddenly Nico felt his bones breaking and gasped for air as he struggled to breathe.

"H-help," Nico managed to choke out.

Suddenly he fell to the ground and was gasping for breath. Nico looked up at Tyson, Percy's brother, who was smiling at him. Nico saw Sadie in a half-offensive stance, as if she were thinking about actually taking Tyson on.

Nico laughed at her, "I'd be dead if this was a real attack Sadie. I don't think you're little karate stance scared him. You scared Tyson?" Nico asked teasingly.

Tyson looked confused but was still smiling at him, "Who is Sadie?"

Sadie helped Nico to his feet and waved politely at Tyson, "Hi!"

"Tyson, we're looking for Chiron have you seen him?" Nico asked, feeling a little pain as he breathed.

"No, but my daddy and uncle and cousins want to see you," Tyson said enthusiastically.

Nico's heart almost stopped beating. He knew there was a slight risk of running into the gods but he didn't actually think they'd call for him.

"Sadie maybe you should sit out here and wait for me," Nico said to her.

Tyson shook his head, "No, no, no! They want a girl named Sadie to come too. Follow me Nico and Sadie!" He started skipping toward the direction of the gods.

Nico looked at Sadie. She looked a bit nervous and he felt bad for dragging her along. He didn't know what the gods would say or do. He didn't think the gods liked him that much due to who his father was, and he especially didn't think they'd like Sadie.

Nico didn't want to worry her though, "It'll be fine." He said smiling at her, he took her hand and gave it a squeeze then they walked to where the gods were located.

Nico stopped her before they were about to enter the room. "Before we go in just remember what I said earlier. Bow to Zeus first, don't speak too much, don't argue with them. You ready?"

Sadie smiled at him, Nico thought she had the prettiest smile. "I'm ready dirt boy, I know you've got my back if something were to happen."

"Well let's go then," he held out his hand and she gladly took it.

They both entered the room. Nico saw Sadie gasp in shock. All the gods were present and were in their 10 feet tall forms, it was a bit intimidating. Nico bowed at Zeus and motioned for Sadie to do the same.

"Child of Hades and a child of Egypt. What brings you both to Olympus?" Zeus said gruffly from his thrown.

Nico gulped, "Um, we're kind of looking for Chiron, Lord Zeus."

"Chiron is on important business for Olympus, he left a while ago," Poseidon said to him. He may be Percy's dad, but Nico was still wary of him. He was careful with all the gods, he never knew which one of them might spite him for something.

"What is it that you want with him?" Zeus asked.

Nico shifted nervously, he didn't know how the gods would take the news that their children were about to be killed. "Well, I got an Iris Message from Percy, Annabeth and Jason. They said they needed help from the campers. The Egyptian monsters combined with the giants and other monsters are over powering them. They said they won't survive if they don't get help soon."

The gods instantly erupted into chatter. They were talking in Ancient Greek, but it was too fast for Nico to pick up on what they were saying.

"What do you feel about the mater, Sadie Kane?" Zeus asked after they finished discussing whatever they had been discussing.

Nico looked worriedly at Sadie, he had hoped they would ignore her for the most part.

"Erm, well sir. I'm not sure if you know but we agreed with Chiron to help the camp. My brother and I's recruits are supposed to come later today," Sadie said to Zeus.

"We are aware of that," Zeus said, "We are not pleased that Chiron would accept the help of the Egyptians. We have not had the best relations with them for a while now."

"I understand but me and my brother and our recruits want to change the House of Life. And even change relations with the Greeks. It's a long shot, but we want to try. I admire everyone at camp, I really love it. I think we should help each other as much as we can. Perhaps we can even go to Greece and help the others, there haven't been many monsters attacking the camp since we arrived anyways," Nico was impressed with Sadie's strength. She didn't even look afraid of the gods as she spoke anymore.

The gods must've been impressed too because they started talking amongst each other again.

Apollo spoke up this time. He was wearing a sleeveless T-shirt and boarding shorts. Nico hadn't even thought he was listening because his headphones were on. "The rules of the prophecy are strict. It calls for 7, and 7 have gone."

"But people have gone against the prophecy before!" Nico pleaded. He didn't know how the gods could not help their own children, they disobeyed the rules all the time when it suited them. "You must do something or they will die."

"Yes, people have gone against the prophecy," Apollo said amused at Nico's outburst. "I vote to send off help. Anyone else agree?"

Nico noted that almost everyone's hands went up, excluding Mr. D and Zeus.

Apollo gave them thumbs up, "So it's agreed then, we're sending help to our heroes. You know I have a good haiku for this."

"Well you both better get going then," Aphrodite said rushing them out. She handed them two train tickets and some money. She winked at them as she ushered them through the door.

Nico was happy to leave, he had heard Apollo's haikus before and it was hard to believe he was the god of poems after that.

Nico and Sadie quickly left the room. Nico was surprised when Sadie put her arm around his shoulders.

"That was a relief!" Sadie said smiling at him, "I guess that means we're going to Greece. I've never been you know. Carter has, he says it's a nice place to visit."

Nico and Sadie walked to the elevator and went down. Once in the lobby Nico looked at the train tickets. He was shocked to see that the tickets were for 5 hours from then. And it wasn't that long of a walk to the train station.

"Looks like we should find something to do for the next 5 hours," Nico said suddenly nervous. He was all alone with the girl he liked and his mind was racing at the possibilities of her somehow falling for him. However, he was too brain dead to think of actual things to do with her.

"Want to get something to eat? You sort of grabbed me before breakfast," Sadie said shyly.

They walked to a McDonalds and bought lunch. Sadie ordered chicken tenders while Nico ordered a cheeseburger with fries.

"So what did you think of the Greek gods?" Nico asked her quietly, McDonalds was a bit packed with people and he didn't want others to overhear them.

Sadie smiled, "That one guy, erm god, with the sleeveless t-shirt was hot."

Nico groaned. If she were falling for Apollo what kind of chance did he have. "That was Apollo. He's the Greek god of the sun and music and all that other stuff. He's a player though, I wouldn't fall for him" Nico warned her.

Sadie laughed a bit and smiled at him, "Thanks for your concern dirt boy."

After they were finished eating they decided to go to a museum. Sadie wanted to show him Egyptian artifacts.

"That's an obelisk, it's a statue for Ra," Sadie explained as they were looking at a miniature version of the Washington monument.

"Ra, he's the Egyptian sun god right?" Nico asked. He had studied in his free time Egyptian mythology, he wanted to impress Sadie with his knowledge.

"Yup, he's very important to the Egyptians."

"Because he would bring hope and happiness to the dead," Nico said, happy that he could impress her with his knowledge.

Sadie raised an eyebrow at him, "Yeah. You're starting to remind me of my brother," she said jokingly. But Nico cringed. Being considered a brother was the last thing he wanted.

"Oh it's nothing, I just vaguely remember reading about it. I normally don't read, I mean I do read but I don't read non-fiction stuff. I like comic books I guess," Nico said lamely, wanting to smack himself for being so awkward.

Sadie laughed, "Comic books are nice too I suppose. They have words. So you're technically reading."

After the museum they still had an hour to spare. Nico suggested going to Central Park to hang out but Sadie cringed and became silent. Realizing he said something wrong.

"Do you just want to wait at the train station then?" Nico asked her politely.

"No. I'm sorry, it's just I realized AJ is probably going nuts. We didn't leave a note, he doesn't have a clue where I am."

Nico's heart fell. He had forgotten for the most part that she even had a boyfriend. He felt very jealous, children of Hades naturally hold grudges anyways. So his feelings of resentment towards AJ only intensified.

Sadie must've noticed his sadness because she took his hand and dragged him down the street, "Let's go to that chocolate shop, I'm dying for some chocolate caramel candy. It's my favorite."

Nico followed her into a tiny candy store. It smelled like chocolate and fudge. He breathed the scent in, almost tasting the candy in the air.

"Do you want any chocolate?" Sadie asked him, shifting his attention from trying to eat the air to her.

"Oh no thanks, I don't like sweets that much," Nico guessed it was something to do with being a child of Hades. He hated sweet tasting things.

"That's awful, how can somebody not like sweets. The way it tastes when it touches your tongue. It's like a million kisses all on a single taste bud," Sadie said smiling.

"You're exaggerating. Candy in general is overrated," replied Nico.

Sadie gave him a questioning look and ordered a few pieces of chocolate and a chocolate covered strawberry. After she got her candy they went outside and sat on the stairs to a building.

"Here, try this," Sadie said as she put the chocolate strawberry up to his mouth.

"Um, no thanks," Nico said only to have Sadie stuff some of it in his mouth. He reluctantly took a bite and chewed it. It didn't taste as bad as most sweets Nico had. He guessed it was the natural flavor of the strawberry.

"See it's yummy isn't it," Sadie said as she ate the rest of it. Nico blushed at the indirect kiss.

Soon it was time for them to head to the train station. Then they boarded the train and Nico took a seat next to Sadie. After talking a little bit more about their trip to Olympus Sadie decided to take a nap. Nico smiled as Sadie, in her slumber, rested her head on his shoulder.

He didn't know why he did what he did next. Perhaps it was the teenage hormones, or simply the result of an amazing day. But he leaned down and kissed her lips. He left his lips on hers for a moment, delighted in the feeling. Then he quickly realized what he was doing and pulled away.

The rest of the trip Nico's thoughts were racing. He had just opened up Pandora's box. He didn't know how he could stay away from Sadie now.

* * *

**AN:/ I don't know if anyone has watched Skins, it's a British tv show. But I must say I think I've been influenced by the show because I sort of changed a few things around in my head to make things in the story a bit more dramatic. :P I hope you enjoy!**

At **Me**: Wow, thanks for the compliment. Though I think it would be better if Rick wrote it. I'm not much for the action scenes and he's pretty good at them. :P Thanks for reviewing!

At** Child of Hermes**: I hope you liked this chapter (and that you didn't die ^_^)! Thanks for reviewing

At **greekgeek105**: I don't want to spoil the story but I'll just say, I enjoy writing Nico and Sadie more because the conversations flow easier. And I hate writing sometimes because I lose the flow... So... ;) Thanks for reviewing!

At **Victoria**: I hope to keep the negative stuff away! :) Yay! I'm glad you don't dislike AJ. It's hard writing an original character but Rick Riordan left us with so few Kane Chronicle characters who are young and magicians, that I had to write some. Thanks for the review!

At **ILuvZarter**: I'm so sorry, next chapter is the Zarter. It's just I'd have to re-write a ton if I moved it to this chapter and I don't have that much time with spring break coming up. But I hope you'll like the next chapter! :D Thanks for the reviews!

At **iHATEfangirls**: You're suggestion made me smile because it's like pretty much a lot of what I was thinking ^_^. Thank you for reviewing!

Thanks for all the reviews! It's been a while since I got this many for one chapter. :)


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 14:**

Percy woke in alarm. He cursed when he realized it was another monster. Him and the others in the prophecy had set up their tents in a cave on the side of Mt. Olympus a few days before in an effort to hide themselves from monsters. After days of ruthless assaults they had decided for the time being to wait for help to arrive. Especially since Piper, Gwendolyn and Leo were all injured, and their supply of ambrosia ran out.

"Annabeth wake up. They've found us," Percy said shaking his sleeping girlfriend awake.

He saw Annabeth start to drift out of sleep and began to wake the others.

"How did they find us?" Piper mumbled grimly.

"Dunno, but we'll have to outrun them again," Percy said as he gathered some of their food and other items. The others began to help him.

BAM! Rocks began to fall all around them and the mountain was shaking.

"Get out of here now!" Percy yelled as an avalanche of rocks started to fall. The last thing they needed was to be trapped in a cave under tons of rocks.

Percy lifted Gwendolyn onto his back due to her being unable to run very fast with a broken leg. Jason lifted Piper and the seven of them rushed out of the cave. Luckily not too far out of the cave was a flat portion of the mountain that would lead them to a safer place away from the tumbling rocks. All they had to do was climb down a small part of the cliff.

"Bobby you climb down first!" Percy yelled as they were exposed to rocks that were still falling.

Bobby quickly made his way down the steep portion of the cliff.

"Jason pass Piper down!"

Jason did as he was told and handed Piper to Bobby. Jason then helped pass Leo to Bobby. Suddenly a large boulder fell within feet of them and bigger rocks began to follow.

"We have to just jump for it!" Annabeth screamed out. Percy knew they didn't have much time and jumped off the cliff with Gwendolyn on his back. Annabeth and Jason were following from behind.

There were still a lot of good things about having the curse of Achilihies. For example, there were probably over a dozen times during the past few weeks when he would've died. This was one of them. Percy could see a pool of blood on the ground as he lay at the bottom of the cliff dazed. A large boulder was on his head.

After he realized it couldn't possibly be his blood he sat up alarmed, knocking the boulder off. Gwendolyn was no longer on his back and was nowhere in sight.

"Gwendolyn!" He screamed out, "Annabeth! Anyone?" He felt his heart racing as he sat there panicking. There were rocks and boulders all around them and dust was in the air, but the rocks had stopped falling.

"Percy!" Annabeth screamed out to him, pain was evident in her voice.

Percy quickly got to his feet, he didn't know what he'd do if something had happened to her.

"Annabeth!" He had to find out where she was.

"Over here Percy," Annabeth said.

Percy ran over to where her voice was. The dust and rocks that covered the ground made it hard for him to see. Finally he found her, her leg was buried under a huge rock and tears were running down her face. She had something in her hand but he couldn't make it out.

"She's not breathing Percy," Annabeth said softly.

Percy realized what she was holding. It was a head, a bloody head. Percy wanted to vomit when he saw all the blood pouring out of a large wound on her head.

"What happened? She was on my back, I thought I had her," Percy said. He could feel tears filling his eyes and his throat felt like he was choking.

Annabeth looked up at him, her eyes were red from crying. "Where are the others?" she asked.

Percy looked around quickly, it was too hard for him to make out anyone.

"I'm over here!" Percy heard Leo shout out. "I'm with Jason, Bobby and Piper!"

"Annabeth and I are together. But Gwendolyn she-" Percy couldn't finish the statement. Of course they all knew they could die and he had seen others die before, but it was always almost surreal when it happened. Gwednolyn would never speak to them again, she would never make lame jokes or tell them funny stories about the situations she always found herself in. Gwendolyn was also one of the few people that were nice to him during his stay at the Roman camp. He hadn't really told Annabeth, but for a while he thought she was his girlfriend.

Percy shook off those thoughts, knew there was no point in focusing on her death, there were still monsters all over and he had to take care of Annabeth.

"I'll free your leg," Percy told Annabeth. A smallish boulder lay on her right leg, "Don't move."

Percy lifted it off her easily but grimaced when he saw her leg. It was crushed pretty badly, it was dark from bruising and it was definitely broken. Percy looked at her and saw her face contorted in pain.

"Don't worry," Percy said, "It's not too bad."

She moaned in pain, "Not too bad? Are we looking at the same thing?"

She was still holding onto Gwendolyn. Gwendolyn's body was still trapped under rocks, there was no way he was leaving her so he got up cleared her body of all the rocks.

"I'll take you over to the others Annabeth. You have to let go of her."

Annabeth still looked pretty shaken and her face was pale. She looked at him and Percy hadn't seen her look this vulnerable before. But after everything that had happened the past few weeks, he wasn't surprised. He knew he himself had changed, he would have nightmares along with his usual traveling dreams and some nights he would wake up on the verge of screaming.

Percy brushed his hands over her warm face and kissed her lips, "Everything will be fine Annabeth."

Annabeth nodded and let go of Gwendolyn, and Percy lifted her into his arms. He screamed out to the others and they told him where to walk. The others looked a bit worn, but not too different from the already two weeks of fighting.

"Annabeth your leg," Leo said as he stared at it in shock.

Annabeth rolled her eyes, "I know Leo. I'm the one who has to feel it. And trust me it looks better than it feels."

"Wait here you guys, I'll get Gwendolyn's body," Percy told them.

"I'll help," Jason said.

The two of them walked over to where Gwendolyn's dead body lay. Percy saw Jason tense when he saw her. Jason leant down and kissed her cheek. Percy remained silent as Jason said his goodbyes. The two weren't dating, but Jason was really close with the other Romans as he was their praetor or general.

"We will cremate her later," Jason told him. His face said he was leaving no option for debate.

"Sure," Percy said, "But now I think we should find another place to hide for the night."

Jason nodded and together they carefully lifted Gwendolyn's body to where the others were waiting. Then they set off finding another place to hide. Percy hoped the others would arrive soon, with the more days that passed the more people they would lose.

**(Switching to Carter!)**

Carter paced nervously along the steamboat that was leading them closer to Zia. Well, maybe closer.

"You should relax Carter," CJ said as she sat down next to the helm where Bast was steering them.

Carter fidgeted, "Too hard."

CJ rolled her eyes and smiled at him, which was a bit unnerving since she never seemed to smile. "Take a deep breath. You know, in-and-out."

Carter stopped walking and sighed. He probably did look stupid walking back and forth. He slowly breathed in deep breath and right as he was about to let it out a glowing bird thing suddenly appeared in his face.

"What the fu-!" He caught himself before he cursed when he recognized the face. He recognized the familiar milky eyes that were twinkling and the same friendly smile.

"Oh sorry Iskhander, didn't recognize you at first," Carter smiled sheepishly at the old man-bird.

"It's wonderful to see you again Carter. You have grown a lot these past two years," Iskhander said, his voice was echoing throughout the huge underground world.

"It's nice to see you again too. But we're looking for Zia, have you seen her?"

Iskhander laughed, "You're getting straight to the point. I see you still have that crush on her."

Carter blushed and began to twirl his fingers in his hair again.

"I have seen her in fact, she's been trying to get Anubis and other gods to reveal a few important things about Amun Ra. I'm not sure if she's been successful or not, but I do know she is still here."

Carter's eyes lit up, "Thank you Iskhander!" He would've given the man a hug, had he not been a weird ghost bird.

"Of course Carter, I won't hold you up any longer. I allow you to pass through," Iskhander said before fading away.

"I hate when he does that!" Bast yelled after she unfroze, she was peeved at having time stop again.

Carter turned to look at them, CJ looked a little confused and Bast was well angry.

"Zia is here!"

Bast grinned, "That's great news! Now we won't have to stay down here longer than needed. We can just grab her and get out of here."

"I bet you're very happy Carter," CJ said staring at him.

"That dog must be coming soon," Bast said crouching down as if trying to hide from an invisible enemy.

Carter looked around the empty underground, he didn't know what was taking Anubis so long. The last time he had appeared almost as soon as they got past the gates.

"Anubis!" he screamed out.

There was silence. Carter didn't know what to do if Anubis didn't come for them. He didn't exactly know the directions to the Hall of Judgment. "Maybe we should all scream for him."

CJ raised an eyebrow at him, "Anubis." She said in her normal monotone speaking voice.

Carter rolled his eyes and looked at Bast who was still crouching down and looking around nervously.

"What? He's not going to get the best of me this time. Not that smelly dog," Bast said before a jackal jumped out of the mist and pounced on her from behind.

"Smelly dog?" Anubis asked after he transformed into his human form. He glared at Bast and then looked at CJ and gave her an odd look, then he turned to Carter.

"You're here for Zia," He stated. He didn't look like he was in a very good mood, his brows were furrowed.

"Can you show us to her?"

Anubis looked at the three of them and nodded. Then a rectangular black portal appeared in the air, Anubis instructed them to walk through it. Carter went through first and was transported into the familiar Hall of Judgment, also known as his old home in L.A. He noticed his father sitting in his usual throne and he looked just as blue as ever.

"Dad!" Carter said smiling at him. He had forgotten just how much he missed him. Next to his father was his mother and Anubis came and stood next to him on the other side.

"It's been too long again," his mother said approaching him and giving him a hug. Carter smiled, he was glad she didn't feel like a dead person.

"I'll try and visit more mom," Then Carter remembered what he came there for, "Zia!.. I mean, have you seen her?"

His mother laughed at him making him embarrassed.

"You've grown so much, I see you found yourself a girl," her blue eyes were shining even in spirit form.

Carter groaned in embarrassment but nodded.

"Has Zia finished talking to the other gods Anubis?" asked Julius.

Anubis nodded, "I will go get her." Anubis dissipated from the room and moments later he arrived with Zia.

Carter couldn't get a good look at her, she had a hood covering some of her face. But he could see her familiar beautiful amber eyes.

"Have you discovered the information you were looking for Zia?" Julius asked her.

Zia nodded, "I just finished, thank you for helping me."

Julius smiled and looked at Carter, "My son has been searching for you. I think he's a more than excited to see you again."

Carter hid his scowl, his dad knew just how to embarrass him. Zia looked over at him and Carter saw her studying him. He smiled politely at her, hoping he didn't look too bad. He had on his favorite outfit, formfitting t-shirt with a hoodie, black skinny jeans and his favorite Nikes. He hoped he looked as good as he did to Sadie's friends, to her.

"Hey," he said dumbly. He wasn't sure what to say in such a situation. He wanted to get on his knees and tell her how much he missed her and thought of her during the past two years, but even he knew that would be too weird and clingy.

Zia smirked at him, "Hey."

"Well I guess now that you all have found each other it's time for you to return to your sister. I've heard that you've also made contact with the Greeks. I want you to be careful, all of you. There's a reason the Greeks and the Egyptians drift away from each other," his father said in a serious tone.

Carter nodded, he didn't understand what his father meant but he would heed his warning.

Then the Hall of Judgment faded away and they were back on the steamboat. Anubis and Zia were with them though.

"I guess we should go now," Carter said to them, "Are you coming too Anubis?"

"No, I will go only if your father tells me I should."

"Okay, I guess I'll see you later. Watch after my dad!" Carter said jokingly.

The corners of Anubis's mouths rose, "Tell your sister we still have to talk." Then he disappeared into the mist leaving Carter with Zia, Bast and CJ.

"I'm going to take a quick nap. I've been traveling and talking nonstop okay?" Zia said as she yawned.

"Oh sure, let me get you some blankets," Carter said as he frantically looked around for something soft she could lay down on.

"Did you forget that you're a magician Carter?" Zia asked him.

Carter grinned sheepishly, "Oh yeah." Then he said a simple spell that transfigured a chair into a small cot.

"Thanks," Zia smiled at him before laying down on the bed. She fell asleep before Carter could say "You're welcome."

"I guess we're going to have to wait for her to wake up before she tells us what happened," CJ said to Carter as she took a seat on the railing of the ship.

"Yeah," Carter said leaning on the railing next to her. He was a bit worried about the flames and lava that were below them.

"I'm glad she's okay," CJ said quietly, "I was worried that if something had happened to her it would be my fault."

"Why?"

CJ sighed, "I was too suspicious of you and Sadie. I didn't trust you and so I didn't have AJ deliver the letter as soon as I could've. If I had you would've been able to help her, she wouldn't be so tired."

Carter smiled at her, CJ wasn't the most expressive when it came to emotions but he could tell she really cared for her friend. "She's alright now so don't worry."

CJ nodded and stood up and walked to where Bast was steering the boat and sat down next to her. Carter watched Zia sleep, after everything she had been through she looked so peaceful.

* * *

**AN:/ I don't know why I was so afraid to write Percy. Well I do know. Tell me if anyone seems out of character. I know Jason probably will be, but I haven't read him enough/he's my least favorite so I don't really mind. But Annabeth and Percy are okay right?**

**Also thank my beta reader, Katnissjackson1019 for editing and helping me with the plot. She suggested I write the land of the dead scene (I was going to make it a boring paragraph!).**

At **ILuvZarte**r: I understand what you mean. It's getting a little boring with just the Sadie/Nico (even writing it is getting kind of boring). I'm going to shift to other characters more now. So I hope you liked this chapter. There will be more Zia and Carter interaction in the coming chapters, well the next one.

At **Asined Nortap**: There will be more Percy in the future. I hope you liked the first part of the chapter though. Also thanks for all the reviews. I read them all and I will try and cut down on the cheesiness. Some conversations are forced and that's why they turn out like that.

At **Wolf girl Myrcat**: You know, I didn't even think about that. Lol, I suck at the mythology part. That's why I bet they'd actually be doing a lot more magic than they have in my story. Thank you for reviewing.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 15:**

Carter was currently in heaven. He was sitting next to the girl he had been thinking of for the past two years. The girl who he knew at age 16 was the only girl for him. As corny as it sounded, she was the cheese to his macaroni. And he knew he stole that from Juno but he didn't care. He had found Zia.

Carter was staring at her dreamily as he had been for the past hour on the flight from New Orleans to Camp Half-Blood.

"You're doing it again," Zia told him for the thousandth time that flight.

Carter blushed and quickly looked away. Stealing a few glances at her. She had grown since he had last seen her. The few traces of childhood that was in her features before were gone. Her cheekbones were now more prominent and her dark black hair was shiny and long. Carter loved staring at her eyes; they were the color of rich amber.

"Sorry, I'm just really happy to see you again," Carter said shyly.

The corners of Zia's mouth rose, making Carter's heart race, "I know. It's good to see you again too."

"Zia, do you remember all those years ago when I asked you to go on a date?"

"Yes, why?"

Carter fidgeted and started twirling his curly hair, "Oh, you know… I just thought that I could take you on one for once. Since I promised I would."

Zia stared at him and Carter shifted awkwardly in his chair. "You do remember we're in the middle of a huge war, right?"

Carter could honestly answer no to that question. Since seeing Zia he had mostly just gone with the flow of things. Everything else was forgotten.

"Yeah, I know," Carter lied, "But you have to take a break sometimes. Don't you ever just want to relax? You've been trying to stop Apophis by yourself for the past 2 years."

Zia sighed and smiled at him, "You're right. You sure have matured these past 2 years Carter. You're actually speaking useful words of advice to me. And you've grown a lot. I could barely recognize you."

Carter hoped that he grown in a good way, "That's a good thing right?"

Zia laughed, "You've grown to be a handsome young man."

"And you've grown to be a beautiful young woman," Carter said smoothly, he hoped he hadn't ripped out too much hair from twirling it so much.

"I'm going to beat up Alex when we get to Camp Half-Blood," Zia said after a few minutes of silence.

"Why?"

"I told him to deliver the letter months ago and I insisted that you guys were not going to rat him out to the House of Life, but he still didn't listen to me. I swear, he is so thick headed sometimes," Zia grumbled.

Carter smiled; he guessed she really had wanted him to come with her from the beginning. He felt bad that she had to do everything alone. He always had his sister to go with him. "Don't hurt him too bad, I can understand him being cautious with us. I just can't believe you two dated."

Zia looked at him surprised, "He told you?"

"Yeah, but he said it wasn't serious at all. It wasn't right?" Carter asked a little panicked.

"It was his idea to even call us boyfriend and girlfriend. It was mainly training. Right Cleo? I know you're listening," Zia said to CJ who was in the seat behind them.

"You two were a terrible couple," CJ said in a bored tone from behind them.

Carter smiled at the confirmation that their relationship had been childish. "Well that's good. I was worried you still liked him."

Zia grimaced, "I barely liked him back then. He was tolerable at best. Right Cleo?"

"Right," CJ said from behind them.

"Did I tell you that he and Sadie are dating?" Carter asked Zia.

Zia didn't look too shocked, "No, it's kind of surprising. The last time I saw Sadie she was just a little kid. I bet she's grown a ton since then. Is she still the same height as you?"

Carter scowled, it was terrible being 14-years old and the same height as his 12-year old little sister. "No, I'm way taller now."

"That's good, it must've stunk being the same height as your little sister," Zia said laughing. Carter gave her a mocking glare.

"So what happened with you finding a way to summon Amun Ra?" Carter asked.

"Most of the gods seemed happy to help me summon him, though Horus and Isis weren't very helpful. Horus doesn't want to give up his seat, and Isis doesn't want to admit her mistake of forcing him into the heavens. However I was told by a few gods that there is an item in Egypt, an amulet, that will allow for Ra to come down from the heavens without a host."

"That would be awesome, the last person who tried to allow Ra to host his body didn't survive. After we get Sadie and AJ we can go to Egypt to retrieve the amulet."

Zia nodded, "Horus also told me that when we need them they will send us gods to help fight monsters. I'm not sure which gods though."

"Well at least they're sending some kind of help, though after you meet my recruits you're going to be impressed. I trained them to be the best," Carter said smugly.

Zia rolled her eyes, "I'll believe it when I see it." She smiled at him and he smiled back.

It was late at night when they landed in the JFK airport and they were at a loss. They didn't have enough money to take a cab to Camp Half-Blood and there weren't any portals nearby.

"We can always call Amos and ask for money," Carter said reluctantly. His uncle would probably strangle him on sight, and lock him in the basement as he went out to find Sadie.

"My dad could lend us money," CJ said in a similar reluctant tone, "I'd ask my aunt for some more money, but I don't want to take too much."

Bast sighed, "We could always borrow a car."

"Borrow?" They all said at once.

Well Carter learned that Bast's idea of borrowing a car was basically stealing it but leaving a note on the ground saying, _"We had an emergency, will return later (if not too badly destroyed)."_

"Bast, I don't think this was a good idea. What if the police pull us over?" Carter asked nervously from the back seat.

"Then I'll use my mind tricks and send them running," Bast said smiling as she let the car roof down.

"You're not supposed to let it down in the middle of driving," Carter protested but it was too late. The top of the car went flying off behind them.

"Oops," Bast said nervously before smiling again.

"Just relax Carter," Zia said to him. She was sitting in the back of the car with him.

Carter looked at her; she was smiling at him and leaning back in her chair. Carter could tell she was enjoying the little time she had to relax.

"I'm sorry, I'll shut up now," Carter said smiling back at her as he leaned back in his chair and let the warm night breeze blow over his face. Carter then got up the courage to put his hand over hers. Luckily, she didn't pull away and they both continued to look up at the stars.

(Percy)

Percy and the others had set up camp in a new spot on Mt Olympus that was covered with forestation. They were away from the dangers of falling rocks, but were more vulnerable out in the open.

"How much longer do you think it'll take them to get here? We've been waiting forever," Leo groaned as he held his head on his knees and rubbed his fractured arm.

"How do we even know they'll send help? We could be left out here to die," Piper added.

"They wouldn't do that. I know my mother would never allow it," Annabeth said fiercely.

"But the council might vote to have us fend for ourselves because of the prophecy," Piper said grumpily. Percy knew she wasn't normally this cynical but they were all a little more grumpy than usual.

Jason sighed, "Can you both stop arguing. Instead of looking at the two extremes we should prepare for both. If they don't come in a few days I say we leave."

Leo and Bobby nodded in approval. Percy still had faith that his father would send help, but had to admit they were in a bad situation that they needed to get out of. He wasn't one to leave mid-quest but more people would die if they stayed.

"I agree with Jason," Percy ignored Annabeth's glare, "You're injured and we have no ambrosia left, we can wait a day more and if they don't arrive by then we should leave."

Annabeth looked like she wanted to argue but decided to drop the matter since her opinion was clearly outnumbered, "It's late, how about we get some sleep?"

"Good idea," said Bobby.

Percy decided to take the first watch as the others slept in their tents. He tried to keep himself awake, but seeing as it was probably 3 AM after a day of escaping an avalanche and burying a best friend he was failing. Just as he was about to doze off he heard someone whisper a few meters away from. He quickly stood up and took out Riptide. He didn't think locals would be walking around, the mist had surrounded the mountain with a dense fog and the weather had been pretty bad since they arrived.

Percy quietly walked away from the others towards the whisper. After walking a bit the whispering stopped. Percy looked around but didn't see anything.

"Croak!" Percy looked at the ground and saw a tiny frog sitting on a fallen log staring at him.

Percy smirked at it, he guessed a lack of sleep was finally effecting his mental health.

"Hey little guy," Percy said before turning around to go back to the others.

Suddenly everything went dark, the moonlight stopped shining, the leaves stopped rustling, and every living creature in the forest became quiet. Percy turned around and stared in shock at the frog that had transformed into a man with a frog's head. Out of all the strange creatures he had seen since he first discovered he was a demigod this was probably the weirdest. He wasn't sure whether to laugh or run.

As the frog man sort of glared at him, which was another amusing site, Percy realized the seriousness of the situation and began to run back to the tents.

He ran closer to the others and was sure he was going to make it. Then his body suddenly stopped moving. Percy couldn't move at all. He was frozen in a running position, all he could do was breathe and move his eyes to look at the man frog who now stood in front of him.

"You won't be able to leave demigod," he said in a gruff menacing tone, "You and your friends are mine now until I get what I want." The frog smirked at him before walking towards the tents, the darkness seemed to follow him.

Percy wanted to scream out a warning to his friends to run away but he was still frozen like a statue. He saw Jason and Bobby rush out of the tent with their weapons drawn, but the man just waved his hand and they fell to the ground. Then Jason and Bobby became frozen too.

Percy saw the man pull Piper and Leo out from their tents then he froze them. Percy's heart filled with relief when the man walked away from the tents. He guessed Annabeth was wearing her New York hat and was invisible. The man didn't know she was there.

"Now that I have you, they will not be able to ignore us anymore," the frog man said smirking as he walked back to Percy. Then his frog face transformed into that of a humans. The man's face was hideous, he looked as pale as the night and he lacked the whites of his eyes and they were like black orbs gleaming sinisterly.

The man held his hand up and Percy's world fell into darkness.

* * *

**AN:/ Bad and good news. Good news is I'm getting all As in my classes. Bad news is I want to keep it that way so I can't update for about a week and a half (maybe more). I have a geology exam next Friday and I really have to do good on it, plus I have a piano competition coming up and I really want to win. So I'm really busy.**

At **Non Malum **: thanks for telling me :) I thought maybe it was and told myself to check later but then forgot to check later.

At** ILuvZarter** : I like all criticism, without it you lose readers and don't even know why. At least with it I can figure out what's going wrong and fix it so thanks again! And yay to the enthusiasm coming back!

At **iHATEfangirls** : Thanks for the honesty. I'm trying to find a happy medium for all the characters now. So tell me if you start getting sick of anyone or want more of someone.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15: (takes place before/during the events of the last chapter)**

The 2 hour trip back to camp was probably the most awkward few hours of Sadie's life. She had fallen asleep only to be woken to Nico kissing her. She had pretended to be asleep for the remainder of the trip but the whole time she was panicking. She shouldn't have enjoyed the kiss, and she shouldn't have had sparks flying in her head. That's not what girls with boyfriends do when another guy kisses them.

They reached their stop and they walked the remainder of the way to Camp Half-Blood. Sadie was wondering what she was going to tell AJ. She wanted to lie and tell him it was nothing but in actuality it wasn't. She had really enjoyed spending the day with Nico. He had been funny, sweet and the most talkative he had ever been since Sadie had got to know him.

They reached the top of Half Blood Hill and Sadie saw a group of people gathered in the camp. It was her recruits! She raced down and hugged some of the familiar faces that she had spent parts of the last two years training and exploring the world with.

She saw her good friends Hannah and Laurie, two girls who Sadie thought were probably some of the coolest people on earth. Everyone was stoked to see her, and she was happy to see them.

Then Sadie saw AJ at the front of the group. He looked pretty displeased at first, but then he slowly gave her a small smile. Sadie ran up to him and gave him a big hug, she was glad he didn't look like he was too mad at her.

They broke apart and AJ looked worriedly at her, "Where've you been? I was worried sick, I searched all through the forest and was about to send everyone out to look for you."

Perhaps she wasn't going to get off easy after all, "I'm sorry AJ, I was about to go to breakfast when Nico told me some urgent news about his friends. So we rushed off to find Chiron at Olympus. And-"

"Wait, you went to Olympus? Actually inside?" AJ asked surprised.

"Yeah, it was pretty cool too. You have to see it sometime. But anyways, we were looking for Chiron but he had already left and then the gods wanted to see us, and anyways they agreed to send everyone to Greece to help fight the monsters. So I guess we're going to Greece," Sadie said enthusiastically.

The others were listening and a few of them seemed excited, the others were clearly wary.

James, a 12-year old boy Sadie and Carter had finished training a month ago spoke up, "It took a lot of effort to get to even be able to come here. My parents weren't very excited at me leaving again, I doubt they'd let me go to Greece." A few others nodded at James's argument.

Sadie hadn't thought of the fact that most of them were young and had parents. "The Egyptian and Greek monsters are teaming up; if we don't fight them they will destroy the earth. The Greeks can't do it by themselves and we can't either. The House of Life thinks we shouldn't be trained and that the gods should disappear, they don't realize we need them. This fight will determine the future of the world. I think we can disobey our parents for this."

There was silence and then someone cheered. Then everyone erupted into applause, Sadie thought it was cheesy but smiled anyways.

"Well when are we going?" AJ asked her.

Nico stepped forward, Sadie didn't even know he had followed her, "We have to leave soon. I'll tell the campers the news, but we're going to need some way to get there."

"We can use a portal," Hannah spoke up.

"Does it work with Greeks?" someone else in the crowd asked.

"It will," AJ said addressing them, "I've seen common mortals use it."

"Well it's settled then," Sadie said smiling at everyone, "After I get into contact with my brother and the others we will leave for Greece."

Before dinner time Sadie helped all of the children of the magicians set up tents in the field next to the pavilion.

After everyone finished eating dinner Sadie and AJ were called into the Rec-room for a meeting with the head of the cabins.

"We heard from Nico about the situation with the others in Greece and how y'all want to help us," Will Solace said to Sadie and AJ as they were sitting with the others.

Sadie nodded and explained how they planned on getting everyone to Greece with the portals. A few of the campers seemed wary of using Egyptian magic and generally distrustful.

"I for one am not using that Egyptian voodoo. There's no telling what it might do to us. It could be a trap for all we know," Clarisse said angrily as she glared at Sadie and AJ.

AJ sighed as if arguing with Clarisse was the last thing he wanted to do, "Well how do you expect to get to Greece then?"

Clarisse gave him a challenging look, "We'll find some other way that doesn't involve your help."

"There isn't another way. We don't have time to build another ship," said Jake Mason who was filling in as cabin leader for the Hephaestus cabin.

"Well forget about the Ares kids helping then," Clarisse said crossing her arms around her buff chest and glaring at them.

Sadie couldn't believe what she was hearing. Their own friends were in serious trouble and they weren't going to help just because they needed help from outsiders? It was ridiculous and made Sadie furious at their selfishness.

"Are you kidding?" Sadie said harshly to Clarisse, "Can't you forget your stupid pride for a few seconds and just help?"

Clarisse stood up from her seat and looked at Sadie with a murderous expression, "Are you trying to start a fight punk? Cause I will beat you down if I have to. I'm not injured anymore and I'll take you on if you want.

Sadie was already upset and stood up and glared at her, "Fine! A fight it is! It'll be fun turning you into a turtle." She tried to look as menacing as Clarisse but knew she probably looked ridiculous considering Clarisse was about three times her size.

AJ grabbed her arm and pulled her back into her seat, "No need to fight right now," AJ said to her gently.

Sadie glared at him and couldn't believe that he wasn't going to help. AJ sighed and confronted Clarisse, "Fine Clarisse, do you really want a fight?"

Clarisse nodded and the other cabin leaders groaned, "You have all your recruits now, so it'll be fairer. Us against you guys in a battle of Capture the flag. If you guys win, I'll follow you, if not you won't have the support of the Ares Cabin.

Sadie and AJ left after the others agreed to start the game in an hour.

"Do you think this is a good idea?" Sadie asked AJ as they were walking. Her anger was gone and she was starting to realize what she had just gotten them into.

AJ held her hand and smiled at her, his blue eyes slightly illuminated by the setting sun. "It's fine. I'll make sure we win," he said in an arrogant tone.

"Wait up!" Sadie heard someone scream. She turned around to see Nico running after them. Sadie hadn't really talked to him since the train ride and flushed a little upon seeing him.

"That was crazy back there. You standing up to Clarisse like that, she's ready to murder you," Nico said laughing. Sadie glared at him. At least someone was enjoying her troubles.

"It's not funny. She's probably going to single me out and hang me by my ankles as she beats me with her electric spear thing," Sadie grumbled.

"I won't let that happen," Nico said. Sadie caught AJ glaring at Nico.

"No need, I'll watch after her," AJ said putting an arm around her shoulder.

"It's okay gentlemen, I'm perfectly capable of defending myself," She said as she tore away from AJ's arm. She stopped and looked at them glaring at each other, the last thing she needed was the two of them fighting over her.

"I'm going to tell the others about the game and explain the rules," Sadie said before rushing away from the two towards where the others were set up in their tents.

Surprisingly, took the news well. A few girls were hesitant about fighting, while others were thrilled to show off their skills.

After discussing battle plans it was time for the game to begin. Everyone met outside of the forest. Will Solace assumed Chrion's role in his absence and was reminding everyone of the rules.

"Remember everyone behave, that means no killing!" A few people laughed as he said that and Will continued, "I guess there isn't anything else that needs to be said, so begin!"

Everyone raced out into the forest. Sadie took her time with AJ by her side; she didn't want him to watch over her the whole time. She was strong enough to look after herself. And she knew he could probably be doing other things to help them win if he didn't stick with her.

"You can go ahead without me AJ, I'm not as weak as I look," Sadie told him.

AJ looked like he wanted to protest but instead he nodded in understanding, "Be safe okay? Stay away from that crazy Clarisse." He smiled at her and quickly disappeared into the dark forest.

Sadie walked around cautiously in the forest. The sun had just finished setting leaving the forest dark, only some of the light from the moon made its way to the forest floor.

Sadie was surprised at how silent the dark forest was. It was seriously giving her the creeps. The crickets singing, frogs croaking, leaves rustling, trees whispering… Sadie tensed when she realized the trees were talking.

She couldn't understand them but she definitely knew they were saying something, she felt like she wasn't alone. Like someone was watching her, she looked around frantically but saw nothing. She knew it was probably foolish to create attention to herself but she was starting to become very unnerved by the darkness.

She said a spell to produce some fire and followed a path. She could hear water flowing in the distance and decided to follow the stream. Once she reached the river she was pushed to the ground.

"I've got a prisoner!" Yelled out some guy Sadie didn't recognize.

Sade's fire extinguished making it hard to see her attacker. She scrambled on the ground to try and move away from the dark figure but the person grabbed her by the leg and started pulling her.

"Ah! Clarisse is going to love seeing you," Her attacker said as he pulled her up from the ground.

Sadie struggled unsuccessfully; she knew she wouldn't win a physical battle against the guy. She would have to use some spells.

"Ha-ti!" Sadie yelled out. Her assailant fell to the ground hard as she used a spell that worked as a force field.

Her attacker didn't seem to be hurt much to Sadie's disappointment. Instead he looked even more pleased and smiled wickedly as if attacking him only increased his desire to fight.

Sadie held back her fear and said another spell, "Ha-mun shi!" This spell worked as a sort of cyclone, it created strong wind currents. The wind knocked the guy into a tree. Sadie had a feeling that this time he wouldn't be getting back up soon.

Not wanting to be caught by people who might've heard their battle, Sadie quickly ran along the river following the current. Because of the darkness she didn't see the huge log sticking out in the middle of the ground and ended up flying into the air. Sadie groaned as she saw a tree in her path that she was unable to avoid hitting. She was knocked out cold upon impact.

Nico was wondering if having a huge battle against the magicians was actually a good idea. He was currently teaming up with Chris Rodriguez and the Stoll brothers after a group of magicians cornered him and turned him into a turtle. If Chris and the Stolls hadn't arrived he was sure he would still be resisting the urge to munch on tons of veggies and avoid getting trampled.

"The flag is about 2 miles ahead of us," Connor being the son of Hermes had a skill for knowing where things were.

"They probably have a ton of people guarding it, we should get closer to see before rushing in for an attack," Chris said.

"Fine by me," he said.

They walked as quietly as they could, which wasn't very quiet, through the dark forest. Due to the leaves still covering the trees very little moonlight was able to come through. Nico didn't mind the darkness though, the others looked nervous but he felt in the zone. There wasn't any way someone could overwhelm him again.

"I think I see something up ahead," Chris whispered in the darkness. He had his sword held out at the ready for anyone who would try and pop out.

"I think someone died," he heard Travis or Connor say in the darkness; "Look there's a body."

Nico would've felt the familiar tone of death had a person actually died but he stepped closer to see the body of person next to a tree.

"I can't see who it is."

"I have some Greek fire," Chris rummaged around in his pocket and then the forest around them lit up.

"Sadie!" Nico crouched beside her as he shook the unmoving body of his friend.

"Is she dead?" Travis asked him.

Nico could feel her breathing but there was a gash on her head, he wondered if one of the other campers had knocked her out. Being the kid of Hades meant he was more experienced with handling the dead than actually trying to keep a person living, so he was a bit clueless of what to do.

"We have to get her out of here," Nico said to the others who nodded.

Nico was too small to lift her the whole way back so he let Chris lift her on his back. They made their way back through the forest when Nico saw a shape in the darkness.

"What did you do to her?" AJ came into focus. He looked murderous as he looked at Sadie who was still on Chris's back.

"Nothing, we found her that way," Nico stepped in front of AJ.

AJ glared at him before shoving him to the ground, "I don't believe you. Give her to me, I'll take her to help."

Nico broke a fuse, there was no way he was going to let an arrogant jerk like AJ have her, "No, Chris will take her to help."

Chris looked at the two of them nervously.

"Go!" Nico yelled at him.

Chris nodded and started jogging towards the medic room with Travis and Connor following behind.

AJ didn't look like he was about to give up easily, and Nico tripped him as he tried to stop them.

"You're really starting to piss me off," AJ muttered as he got up to his feet.

"You've accomplished that weeks ago," Nico retorted, standing up to face him.

AJ swung first, luckily Nico was shorter because he was able to duck the first punch. But he wasn't so lucky for the second punch that landed on his stomach. Nico winced but retaliated and managed to land his fist on AJ's shoulder

Then AJ took out his daggers and advanced. Nico quickly took out his own Stygian Iron sword and blocked one of the blades, the other cut his wrist.

Nico tried to defend himself but AJ was a tough competitor. However, he had learned some new tricks over the years too. He grasped the shadow and captured AJ with it. Nico had learned to manipulate the shadow to act as a constraint. AJ didn't move and Nico took this as his chance to finally end the battle. He didn't want to do serious harm like AJ had seemed to be trying to do but he knew he would have to make his point that he wasn't weak.

He raised his sword and approached AJ who was still frozen. AJ was glaring viciously at him but couldn't move as Nico began to swing it down.

"Stop!" Nico turned around to see Chiron red faced and out of his wheelchair.

"I wasn't really going to kill him. It's not what it looks like!" Nico pleaded, hoping he wasn't about to be expelled.

"It's not that, the gods have news they want to share with us. Lord Hermes will be here shortly."

Chiron then trotted off before Nico could question him some more in the direction of the other campers who were still fighting.

Nico was about to run off into the pavilion when he remembered AJ was still tied up in a shadow. Nico turned around to see AJ still glaring at him. Nico wasn't stupid and he knew if he released him AJ would attack him.

"You have to promise not to attack me if I set you free," Nico told him.

AJ couldn't say anything but he was still glaring.

"If you try I'll only freeze you again but next time I'll leave you here in the forest. So are you going to attack me if I let you go?"

AJ glared at him for a few moments before he finally relaxed. Nico took that as a sign of submission and eased the shadows away from him. AJ glared at him again but walked briskly towards the pavilion. Nico trudged along after him, he was wondering what the gods wanted.

Nico entered the Pavilion to see a handful of other campers and Egyptians chatting amongst themselves. To his surprise he also saw Artemis's hunters sitting away from all the guys. The gods weren't there yet and he could hear others speculating what they were going to hear about.

"What happened between you two?" Chris asked once Nico sat down behind their row.

"Not much, Chiron came and told us to come here," he left out the part about him winning.

"Where's Sadie?"

"I gave her to one of the magician healers."

The others must've thought that him not getting his butt kicked was boring because they returned to talking about something else and ignored him. It took 20 minutes for everyone to arrive. After a few minutes Hermes teleported into the room. He was wearing a business suit and was talking on his phone as he entered.

Hermes didn't look happy at all. Nico tensed at whatever he was going to say, it probably wasn't good.

"Now that everyone is here I bring the news from the other Olympians," Hermes spoke to them, "The 7 who were chosen by the prophecy have been kidnapped by one of the Egyptian gods. We are treating this as an act of war."

The room erupted into chatter.

"Normally in this situation we'd immediately have everyone imprisoned, however we are willing to give you magicians a chance to redeem yourselves."

"But _we_ didn't do anything!" a magician girl shouted out, but Hermes ignored her.

"That is why we are being generous. You Egyptians have three days to find the kidnapped demigods, or else your fates will not be so fortunate."

All the magicians began to panic and talk amongst themselves. Nico felt bad for them. If he hadn't gotten Sadie and the others involved they wouldn't be in this mess. Not to mention, Percy and Annabeth and the others were in trouble. It looked like they had been too late anyways.

"That is all," Hermes said.

"Wait!" Nico screamed out suddenly. He was also responsible for the magician's safety, "I promised them our help for their help. Does that mean us campers can still go to help find them?"

Hermes shrugged, "Whoever still wishes to make the journey can still do so. The threat of Gaia is still imminent."

Then Hermes teleported away.

* * *

**AN:/ Sorry again for the long delay.**

**Thanks for the reviews. I'm reading every one and I especially am taking into account the criticism. I was actually thinking as I was writing this chapter that Nico was out of character. I haven't read the PJO books in a while now, so I'm still thinking of 12-year old Nico's personality as I write. I keep forgetting how much he matured. So I'll try and fix that, but I can't have him do a complete personality change in the middle of the story so it won't be by too much (sorry about that).**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 18 [my chapter headings are confusing me so let's call this chp 18 from now on even though it's not]:**

Annabeth didn't know what to do. She was all alone in the middle of Mt. Olympus in a foreign country where crazy monsters and demons were roaming. Her boyfriend and friends had just been kidnapped by some crazy guy with black eyes, and to top things off, her leg was broken.

She didn't know where to go and it was hard for her to concentrate without wanting to scream in misery. She had reunited with Percy only a few months before and now he was gone. She had dreamed of them spending the rest of their lives together and that dream was starting to fade. After thinking of a million ways where she wouldn't end up dead, the only thing she could think of was to stay where she was at and hope the others got to her soon. And that wasn't a very happy thought because if any monster were to attack her she'd be unable to put up much of a fight.

"Mom please help me," Annabeth's eyes were squeezed shut as she prayed with all her might that her mother would hear her and send help.

Nothing happened. Annabeth could feel a tear running down her face and she quickly rubbed it away. There was no time for her to cry, she had to keep thinking of a plan. However the best plan at that point was simply hope.

**┏(^_^)┛ ┗ ( ^_^) ┓ ┏ ( ) ┛ ┗ (^_^ ) ┓ ┏(^_^)┛**

Sadie woke early the next day in a foreign room and with a very bad headache.

"Hey you're awake."

Sadie felt a soft hand on her forehead and suddenly the pain was gone. She opened her eyes and saw Jazz, a blond girl from Tennessee. Jazz was one of those people that made Sadie realize she couldn't judge a book by its cover. She was a cheerleader and at first Sadie thought she was a typical dumb cheerleader. However, after spending a few months with her in pursuit of an amulet of Ra's, Sadie had come to seriously respect her. Jazz was an amazing healer and a loyal friend.

Sadie smiled at seeing her again. "Wow, my headache is gone. Thanks Jazz," Sadie said sitting up to get a better look at her friend who looked to be in her normal cheery state.

"I'm so glad you're all right Sadie!" Jazz said giving her a hug. "You're friend Nico and Chris had found you in the forest bleeding under a tree. What happened?"

"A nasty Greek root monster sprung out from the ground and tripped me. I'm lucky to have gotten away with just a bruised head." Jazz laughed at her lie.

"Well you seem to be just fine now. A lot has happened since you've been asleep. You should probably talk to Carter."

"Carter's here?"

"Yup, he arrived early this morning. I think him and the others are talking to Chiron on Half-Blood Hill. They'll catch you up on things."

Sadie nodded and quickly scooted off the bed. She looked around and noticed a few more magicians and campers on other beds in the tiny room. Some of them were completely bandaged, she guessed the no stabbing rule had been forgotten completely the night before.

Sadie said her goodbyes to Jazz and set off to find Chiron and her brother. She didn't have to look too long because she found them on Half-Blood hill. She smiled as she recognized Zia, she hadn't changed much. As she got closer she realized they weren't alone, with them were a group of girls.

They all looked no older than 16, but at the same time they all had a strange aura to them. As if they were actually more mature than they looked. At the front of the group was a beautiful auburn haired girl who looked like she was 12-years old. Sadie felt envious of her eye color - they were the color of a full moon on a dark night.

The beautiful girl and others watched her as she joined the others. She could tell that there was tension amongst all of them. Especially since a few of the girls seemed to be glaring at Chiron and her friends. Nico seemed to dislike the auburn haired girl the most – his angry gaze was fixated on her.

"I heard you got back this morning, how was the trip?" Sadie asked Carter.

Carter smiled and Sadie knew he was probably jumping for joy inside at having Zia back with him. "It was fine. We were going to go to Egypt after picking you and AJ up but after what happened yesterday we kind of have to go to Greece."

Sadie was going to question him more but Chiron cleared his throat, "This is Sadie Kane, Lady Artemis. She is-"

"The blood of Ramses and Narmer," Artemis said interrupting Chiron's introduction, "It's nice to meet you Sadie Kane." The other girls nodded at her politely.

Sadie recognized that Artemis was a Greek goddess and she raced her memory trying to figure out who exactly she was. Artemis must've known she was having trouble remembering because she smiled at her, making Sadie fidget, she was really pretty and kind of scary at the same time.

"I'm Artemis, Greek goddess of the hunt and the moon," Artemis said to her and motioned to the girls behind her, "These are my hunters."

Sadie could see Carter roll his eyes at her. She glared at him. It wasn't her fault there were so many Greek gods and goddesses to remember. She barely knew the Egyptian gods!

The girls with Artemis glared back at Carter making him hide behind Zia.

"We were just discussing travel plans Sadie," Chiron told her, "Lady Artemis believes her brother, Lord Apollo, will help us with transporting some people along with our camp vans."

"We have a stolen car," CJ looked bored as usual.

"Wait. What happened yesterday? We're leaving today? Is Clarisse coming too?" Sadie felt weird being so out of the loop after a night of being in a concussion.

"Apparently the demigods who we were going to save have been kidnapped by Egyptians," AJ explained, "It wasn't one of us personally, but we're still being blamed."

"And we have three days to find them or else," Carter added.

"Or else what?"

Carter's expression fell, "I guess we'll be locked up for the remainder of our lives."

"How is that fair at all?" Sadie asked angrily to Artemis. Her hunter's tensed and they looked like they wanted to hit her.

"It's okay," Artemis said to her angry hunters, "Life isn't fair Sadie Kane. I don't agree with my father's decision, that's why I'm here sending my hunters to help." Sadie nodded and felt bad for blaming her so suddenly.

Artemis continued, "I will continue to try and persuade my father that the gods need to help more, but I'm afraid it'll fall on useless ears unless you magicians succeed in finding the missing demigods."

Chiron interrupted their brooding at hearing such grim news, "Well until Apollo arrives I feel we should all get ready. Tell the others to also get ready, we will leave in about 20 minutes."

They nodded and left Chiron and Artemis talking about something on the top of the hill.

"How are you Nico? It's been a while since I've last seen you," asked a girl with black hair, blue eyes, and a kind of hawkish face. She had the same weird glow as the other girls.

"I'm good," Nico said giving her a small smile.

The girl smiled and patted him on his back, making Sadie's heart beat faster and she felt annoyed at the girl acting so familiar with him.

"I heard your dad is making you go to school."

"Yea, it was bad at first but I've made some new friends. Oh yea, Thalia this is Sadie, Carter, CJ, AJ, and Zia," Nico said pointing to each of them. Thalia smiled politely at them. Sadie noticed the other girls were distancing themselves away from Carter and AJ and were kind of standing near her, Zia, and CJ.

"This is Thalia, she's one of my old friends," Nico said. Everyone but Sadie smiled at her, resulting in Thalia giving her a weird look. Sadie didn't care if she was begin rude though, well she knew she was acting a bit immature but she couldn't help it.

"Why is Artemis so young looking? I didn't know what to expect of her, but-"

"But what?" the hunters asked interrupting Carter. Sadie was right, they were definitely scary, especially with the way they were all glaring at him.

Carter gave them a sheepish smile, "Nothing you know, I just thought she'd be a lot older looking since she's like thousands of years old. Nothing wrong with looking 9 though."

"She didn't look 9 Carter," Sadie said scoffing at him.

"Fine I thought she would look older than 11," Carter said rolling his eyes at her, "Why does she look like that? Did she stop growing?"

Thalia raised her eyebrows at him, "She chooses to look that way."

"Have you all ever faced Egyptian monsters?" Sadie tried to change the conversation after Carter's accidental insult to their goddess.

"A few," Thalia said quietly, the other girls suddenly looked sad. Sadie guessed they had lost someone important. "Lady Artemis has given us more help in knowing how to destroy them. We won't be as hopeless as before."

"She didn't seem pleased at seeing us," AJ said suddenly.

Thalia smirked at him, "The last thing any of the Greek gods want is help from magicians. We are from different world basically. They've coexisted before but it's not like they've ever been friendly with one another."

"They'd prefer it if we were always separate. I can understand that too. No offense to you guys but I don't believe there will ever be times when our gods will be best friends," AJ said. Sadie didn't like his pessimism – it was possible for them to get along if they tried. She and Nico were friends.

"Where are the Egyptian gods?" asked one of the hunters.

"I just came back from spending some time in the Land of the Dead. Horus said he would send help if we really need it, though I don't know what that means though. We could use some right now," Zia sounded peeved.

The group of them reached the other magicians and campers and announced the news that they would be leaving soon. Sadie split up from the group and looked around for Clarisse, apparently the magicians had won the previous day's game meaning Clarisse had promised she and her brothers and sisters would also come to Greece and help.

"Clarisse!" Sadie yelled out as she knocked on the bloody looking Ares cabin. The door opened and Sadie was greeted by a familiar face.

"You!" Sadie glared at the guy who had attacked her last night. He was even scarier looking in the daylight.

The guy smirked, "Clarisse,_ that_ _girl_ is here for you." He moved out of the way when Clarisse barged past him. She was dressed in full gear, with a Spartan helmet and body armor.

"So, are you guys coming with us to Greece today? We're leaving in 20 minutes or so. We did win-"

"I know you won," Clarisse glared at her, "Won't happen again though. We know how to deal with your magic now. Attack first and talk after you're bloodied on the ground." Sadie cringed at her dark smirk.

"Does that mean you're coming then?"

Clarisse sighed, "We promised we would didn't we? Besides with those seven half-bloods so easily captured it's a chance for the Ares kids to show that one of us should've gone in the first place. We just have to get finished packing in preparation for some monster butt kicking."

After leaving Clarisse alone Sadie went to the big house and packed her own belongings before making her way to Half-Blood Hill. She found Zia and Carter. She laughed as she overheard her brother flirting with Zia - he was so awkward when he tried.

She took pity on him though and decided to help him build some of his reputation points. "Hey Zia, did you know that after Carter and I defeated Set, Carter managed to defeat four demons by himself?"

Carter gave her a wide grin and Sadie walked away to give them some privacy. She just hoped he wouldn't screw up the opening she gave him.

"Sadie, I'm really glad you're okay," AJ approached her and enveloped her in a hug. Sadie smiled as he kissed her gently.

"I'm fine. It's just a slight concussion, nothing too bad."

AJ held her at arm's length and looked her over, "What happened? Was it Nico?"

"No, I ran into a tree. Nico wouldn't do something like that," Sadie frowned at him.

AJ shrugged, "You can never be so sure. I've been talking to others about him, did you know he is half brothers with Adolf Hitler?"

Sadie glared at AJ, she didn't like what he was insinuating. "That's not Nico. Besides, he can't help who his family is."

"I just want you to be careful around him. You don't know him very well."

Sadie glared and pulled herself away from him, "And I obviously don't know you very well. Nico's my friend, he would never hurt me. You as my boyfriend should have faith that I can pick out my own friends."

Sadie walked away from him angrily and joined Felix and some other younger magicians. After listening to them talk about trying some Greek food a bright light shone in the sky.

"Look away everyone!" Artemis yelled out to them, "Unless you want to permanently lose your vision."

Sadie quickly followed her advice and stared at the ground. Though she could still feel the heat of whatever was approaching. The already hot and humid summer's morning was quickly becoming close to unbearable.

"You can look now," Artemis said after a few minutes. The heat had died down, but it was still hotter than normal.

Sadie looked up and saw the hot guy – god she had seen when she visited Olympus. He looked even hotter than the last time she had seen him in Olympus. His blue eyes were amazingly bright and seemed to shine along with his pearly white teeth - Sadie didn't know teeth could be so attractive. He was wearing a white t-shirt that showed off his muscles.

"You're drooling," Felix whispered to her as he stifled his laughs. Sadie glared at him and continued to stare at Apollo – she could see AJ glaring at her from afar too.

"Hey everyone. Hey kids! Hey sweetheart," Apollo winked at one of the hunters who looked back at him murderously. "Little Sis!" Apollo smiled brightly at Artemis.

Artemis rolled her eyes at him, "Don't call me that and can they all fit in to get a ride to Central Park?" Artemis asked Apollo. Sadie thought it was odd seeing the two of them together, they looked and acted like complete opposites.

Apollo looked over them all critically. Sadie shifted nervously as he rested his eyes on her for second.

"Sure no proplemo, though I don't think father is going to like having so many magicians in the sky," Apollo frowned before smiling again, "No worries though. I'll compose an awesome haiku for father so he'll forgive me:

_Oh my great father,_

_My awesome, dearest father,_

_Don't kill them too fast."_

He looked at the crowd of people expectantly who looked back in horror and shock. Sadie pinched Felix before he started to laugh out loud. Finally a few people - mainly his own children - started cheering.

"Awesome poem dad!" Will shouted out giving him a thumbs up.

Apollo seemed to like the compliment. He took out his keys and clicked them and suddenly the bus transformed into a giant school bus.

"Aww, this is my least favorite ride," Apollo pouted as he entered the school bus, "But it'll do. All aboard!"

Everyone eagerly boarded the bus. Sadie stepped on with Bast in front of her.

"If it isn't Bast the Egyptian cat goddess," Apollo stared at Bast intently – his brow furrowed.

Sadie could feel a sort of spark going between them and it wasn't the romantic kind.

"Still going around seducing teenagers I see – Isn't that a bit immature for a 5000-year old god?" Bast asked referring to his youthful appearance.

Apollo glared and Sadie could tell that behind his extremely handsome and rugged façade that he was still a quite powerful god. Sadie hoped Bast wouldn't upset him too much, they still needed to work with the Greeks.

"And I see you're still wearing that outfit. It makes your bum look big," Sadie raised an eyebrow to his immature jab and tried to pull Bast onto the bus.

"There's no way I'm riding with him – I'm taking the car."

Sadie sighed – why were the gods so immature? Didn't they realize some others somewhere were on the brink of death – even she a person who acted rashly understood that. But Sadie could see no amount of reasoning would make Bast lighten up.

"Fine, let's take the stolen car. It's not as if we could get stopped by the police or anything." Sadie walked with Bast to the car and drove off in the direction of the flying bus. Bast drove the craziest she'd ever driven. In an attempt to annoy the sun god Bast decided that it was her new goal to beat him to their destination – which was outrageous since they were competing with a magical flying car!

"Slow down," Sadie managed to squeak as she gritted her teeth and held on for her life.

Bast looked at her crazily and grinned, "No way. That stupid sun god thinks the world revolves around him – which in the mortal world it does… but there's no way he's going to win."

Sadie would've questioned Bast more on why she seemed to dislike Apollo so much but didn't want to distract her anymore.

After a horrifying 30 minute drive to central park – which normally took 2 hours – they finally came to a screeching stop. Bast jumped out of the car and smiled triumphantly at the sky, "I won!"

"Not so fast," came a voice from in front of them. Sadie saw Apollo and the group of campers sitting around on the grass. They looked like they'd just gotten off a roller coaster.

"Looks like you've lost again Bastet," Apollo was smiling brightly and if it weren't for her feeling like she'd puke up all of her breakfast she would've admired the sight more.

Bast looked like she was going to tackle him but luckily Carter appeared out of nowhere – with Zia by his side – and held her back.

"We have to go now," Carter said in an authoritarian tone.

Bast glared at Apollo one more time before nodding. Sadie looked at the group of people waiting by Cleopatra's needle and took a deep breath. She didn't know what they'd meet on the other side but it was about time they found out.

* * *

**AN:/**

**Sorry it took so long. But I'm not abandoning, I read Throne of Fire so there are going to be some spoilers for that book from now on b/c I think I can fit in some of that plot into this story.**

**So I'm still going to finish! – lol, even if I did lose all of my readers. :P**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 19:**

Percy looked around the dark room he had woken in. He was completely alone and it was extremely hot. He lifted himself to his feet shakily and looked around the room. He felt around in his pocket for Riptide but cursed when he realized it was gone.

"Perseus Jackson," a voice came from one of the corners of the room. Percy squinted and was able to make out an old man sitting in the corner.

"Who are you? Where are my friends?" Percy asked apprehensively.

"Your friends are in danger – but you must not worry about them now. There's something more important you must do." The old man motioned for Percy to come closer to him. Percy walked over cautiously, up close he got a better look at the man. He looked old – older than when he had saw his dad one time in his palace during the Titan war. His skin looked like leather and he was an unnatural pasty yellow color.

"I cannot stay here much longer, I'm already using too much energy being here right now. Take this," The old man placed an object into Percy's hand. It was a necklace with a small amulet on the end. "You will need to get out of here – even if it means leaving the others behind. You must take this to the ones who are trying to find you."

"Who is trying to find me?"

The old man looked like he was burning. Sweat was coming from his forehead and his leathery skin started drooping even more. It was like he was melting.

"Tell me? How am I supposed to get out of here? I don't even have my sword."

The old man nodded and then placed another object into his hand – Riptide. "You must find them fast, It's almost too late."

With that the old man melted into a puddle. Percy stared at the necklace and Riptide confused. He guessed that the people who were coming to find him were the other demigods, but he didn't know if they would understand what to do with the necklace if he didn't. Plus, there was still the issue of escaping – and he wasn't going to leave his friends behind.

Percy heard murmuring from people speaking behind one of the walls. He quickly pressed his face on the wall to try and hear what they were saying.

"The boss says we gotta feed them," said a raspy voice.

"If it were up to me we'd let them starve. We don't need all of them anyways, might as well kill some of them," said a familiar voice. Percy jogged his memory before realizing it was the guy who'd kidnapped them which meant someone even more powerful or influential than him was in control – and that was a scary thought.

"Let's just get this over with," the first voice said.

Percy felt the wall getting hot and begin to crumble. He quickly backed away and returned to where he had been laying when he woke up. He clutched Riptide tightly against his chest – hoping they'd think he was still passed out before attacking.

"He's still unconscious. The Greeks are really weak – he's pathetic for one of their strongest," said the man who'd kidnapped them.

Percy heard him breathing over him and took this as his chance to attack. He quickly unsheathed Riptide and slashed up before the man had a chance to blink. He made contact with him and he burst into what looked like hieroglyphics.

Percy turned towards the other man who was shrinking away from him scared. He didn't look as menacing as his kidnapper and was slowly backing away from Percy with his hands raised.

"Where are my friends?" Percy demanded.

"The-They're in t-the other rooms s-sir," he squeaked.

Percy grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt and forced him to lead the way to the other rooms. They looked like they were in some kind of underground building. The walls were made of sandstone and it looked like a maze of hallways.

"Open it," Percy demanded.

The small man nodded and Percy let go of him. The man said a spell and another hieroglyphic appeared the air. The wall crumbled and Percy saw Leo and Piper sitting on the floor. Leo leaped up from the ground and was holding a giant hammer with his good arm – he luckily missed Percy as he swung wildly.

"Stop Leo! It's me Percy. Where's Jason and the others?"

Leo stopped swinging, "Sorry," he said grinning sheepishly. He pressed a button on his hammer and it collapsed into a tiny pocket knife looking thing. "I dunno where the others are at."

Percy looked at Piper – she still looked pretty beaten up. He knew he had to get them out soon – it was only a matter of time before someone realized they were out of their rooms.

"Where are the others?" Percy asked the man who was pale and trying to back away from both him and Leo.

"I don't know. They took the Romans somewhere else."

"If you're lying you're going to be in trouble," Percy threatened. Leo revealed his hammer and glared at the squirming man.

"I-I p-promise I'm not l-lying!" The man begged, "They hate the Romans, so it wouldn't surprise me if they're already dead."

Percy heard Piper gasp. He looked the man over and knew he was telling the truth. He heard footsteps in the distance and realized they'd better not test their luck anymore – he'd come back for the others after getting Leo and Piper to safety.

Percy hoisted Piper onto his back and ordered the man to lead them out of the building. He'd tell the others about the strange visitor and the necklace after they escaped.

**(^_^)**** ( ^_^) **** ( ) **** (^_^ ) ****(^_^)**

Carter was the first one to step through the portal. He landed on his feet at the foothills of Mt. Olympus. Surprisingly he didn't see monsters or troubled demigods. It was quiet – too quiet.

He heard the chatter of the others stepping through the portals. Their weapons were raised before they also lowered them.

"Where is everyone?" Zia asked as she plopped down beside him. Her staff was raised and her eyes were gleaming, her hair twirling in the slight breeze, her cheeks were flushed, her red lips were parted –

"You're staring Carter," said Sadie.

Carter blushed and directed his attention back on the task at hand. They obviously needed to find the missing demigods first.

"So where are they?" Clarisse asked gruffly. She and her brothers looked disappointed and ready to pound on Sadie and Nico for wasting their time.

"They should be around here," Nico said weakly as he looked around frantically. The magicians and demigods started looking at him skeptically but Carter knew they had to look.

"We'll split into two groups – if either group finds them we'll call the others."

"How are we going to call them? I don't have any drachmas," asked a Katie Gardner.

"I don't know what drachmas are but just use a cell phone," Carter stared at the demigod's confused faces.

"We can't use cell phones, they act as beacons for monsters," Malcolm said as the others nodded.

Carter nodded and they decided to use magical flares to alert each other – not like that would be any less obvious. After splitting everyone into two groups of 30 they marched in opposite paths. Carter had split Sadie and AJ up after he noticed they weren't on good terms at the moment, leaving him in a group with Zia, Sadie, Nico, a few other magicians and an assortment of demigods.

Carter realized as he was walking that out of the whole group he was acting as their designated leader and no one disagreed. He hoped Zia noticed.

They walked for a few minutes before suddenly a spark shone in the air from behind them. Carter gripped his sword and ran toward the others with his group in tow. Carter recognized a few of the monsters but some of them looked quite foreign.

He slashed his sword hacking down a few overgrown birds. The others were also fighting the countless monsters that were around them.

"I've found Annabeth!" a voice screamed out.

Carter smiled with relief – if one of them was found then the others must be close. Then they could go to Egypt, get the amulet, free Ra, and let him defeat Apophis while the Greeks finished off Ghaia.

Carter continued fighting – it felt like hours had passed before all the monsters around them were gone. His body was aching and he wanted to collapse right then and there – but first he had to make sure everyone was okay.

Zia thankfully was uninjured but was also very tired. Carter walked past a few magicians who had nasty cuts but nothing life threatening, Clarisse and her siblings didn't even seem fazed and looked like they were ready for more.

"Carter!" AJ called as he ran over to him, "It's Sadie."

Carter quickly followed AJ to a large tent. Inside were cots with the injured being treated. They passed a bed with a girl with blonde hair who was surrounded by a group of Apollo campers. Sadie was in the back of the tent. Jazz was next to her along with a few other rookie healers, Bast, CJ, and Nico – who was holding her hand tightly.

"What's wrong with her?" Carter asked as he looked at her pale unconscious face.

"Sekhmet cursed her pretty badly -which is odd because I thought she'd be on our side," Jazz explained, "But I'm trying my best to hold back the illness, I think Sekhmet infected her with the bubonic plague."

Carter gasped, "Can you treat it?"

Jazz looked at him sadly, "I don't know."

Carter watched his little sister's frail figure lying on the bed and felt himself getting dizzy. He had never felt so helpless.

* * *

**AN:/**

**Thanks for the reviews! I'm so happy I still have people even reading. **


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 20:**

The last thing Sadie remembered before her Ba drifted off was a woman with a lion's head throwing a curse at Felix and her foolishly pushing him out of the way to take the curse. Now she was stuck in bird form as her body was probably laying somewhere dying.

She floated around before she arrived at a cemetery with Anubis sitting at a table. If birds could blush she was sure she'd be glowing red as she flew down to Anubis. He smiled at her and she felt her body shift and looked down to see that her Ba had turned into her human form.

Anubis looked just the same as he looked when she saw him 2 years ago – same charming brown eyes, same tousled black hair, same pale features. He was still the strikingly handsome 16-year old looking god of funerals.

"Hello Anubis," Sadie said awkwardly as she sat down at a small circular table opposite of him. There were some cookies on the table and it looked like they were going to have tea rather than discuss her potential funeral preparations.

"Hello Sadie," Anubis smiled gently at her.

"So, are we going to start discussing what type of tombstone I want?"

Anubis cocked his head to the side, "What? – Oh no, you're not going to die Sadie. Well not yet at least… That's what I need to talk to you about – that and some other things."

Suddenly AJ and Nico popped into her mind and this time she did blush.

"Sekhmet thought it would be a good idea to curse you with the bubonic plague. It's a really powerful curse – one that you need to counter that with a strong cleaning spell. Something people back then weren't very good at. Now I need to talk to you about your two new friends – Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene."

Sadie coughed as she chocked on a biscuit. The last thing she wanted to talk to Anubis about was her boyfriend – especially when he was her first crush.

"What about him?" she asked after catching her breath.

"Well both of them are very important. I ran into Cleopatra Selene the other day, I'm not sure if she remembers me but I knew her and Alexander Helios 2000 years ago."

Sadie nodded as she remembered that the two of them were actually reincarnates. And she guessed that after dying they would've run into Anubis.

"There was a deal made around their lives – a deal that they need to complete."

"What sort of deal?" Sadie asked.

"If they want to tell you they can – though I wonder if they even remember. Their parents set it up. I just need you to remind them that they have to uphold their end as I have already done my part."

Sadie could tell he wasn't going to budge if she asked him more questions, and his mysterious act was a bit creepy. "Is that it?" She asked wanting to get back to the living world.

Anubis frowned, "I feel bad for your romantic choices – one guy is destined for something and the other is Greek."

Sadie suddenly became angry with Anubis. "Like you have any control over my love life – it's none of your business." She stood up from the table and waited for her Ba to return to her body.

Anubis stood up and stood next to her, "I'm just concerned Sadie." He then leaned in and kissed her gently on her lips. Before her brain even had time to process it she was floating away. She looked down at Anubis who stared up at her with his sad brown eyes.

Sadie awoke to the chattering of many individual and bright light. When her eyesight finally focused she could make out all her friends around her. She felt lightheaded when she saw Nico and felt her hand in his tight grip. When she saw AJ she suddenly remembered everything Anubis had just revealed – including the kiss.

"You have to use a cleaning spell," Sadie croaked out. Her throat felt like she'd swallowed nails and then drank a cup of alcohol right after.

"A cleaning spell," Jazz muttered before something seemed to click in her head, "Of course! I'll be right back with the spell." She ran out of the tent.

AJ leaned down to her and kissed her forehead gently – she must've been burning up because his normally heated kisses felt like an icepack. She smiled nonetheless as she looked at his concerned face, their earlier fight seemed trivial now that she was ill with a 700-year old plague.

"You're going to be okay," AJ said comfortingly. Sadie wasn't sure how to tell him Anubis's message – she had a feeling that whatever he meant by destiny wasn't good.

Luckily Jazz entered the room before Sadie had a chance "I have the spell!" Jazz pulled out her staff and concentrated before chanting. Sadie felt her body cooling and it became a lot less painful to swallow and breathe. After a few minutes she was able to sit up. Nico was still beside her but no longer holding her hand, Bast was next to him and CJ and AJ were standing at the foot of her bed.

"Where are Carter and Zia?" Sadie asked them.

"They're sorting out a plan to find the missing demigods," Bast answered.

"I thought they found one of them?"

"The rest of them were kidnapped," Nico answered, "We were a day late." His face looked paler than usual and Sadie knew he was probably blaming himself for not acting sooner.

"We'll find them," Sadie tried to comfort him, "I'm sure they can't be that far."

After Sadie felt she wouldn't faint upon standing she decided to get out of bed. The others had left to help fight the monsters that kept rapidly re-spawning. As she was leaving the tent she looked at an unfamiliar blonde girl. She looked pretty beaten up and Sadie realized she was probably Annabeth.

"Water," the girl muttered suddenly – her eyelids were still closed. Sadie looked around for any Apollo campers but she was the only one still awake in the tent. Sadie grabbed a small cup and filled it with water from her canteen, she walked over to Annabeth and placed it in her open hand.

"Thanks, you're Sadie right?" Annabeth's eyes were now open and Sadie could see startling grey eyes that a few of the other campers had.

"Yeah, and I guess you're Annabeth."

Annabeth nodded and she sat up in her bed, looking at Sadie with calculating eyes. "It's weird how in the past year we suddenly find out that there aren't just Greek gods but Romans and now Egyptians too. Did you know about us before all of this?"

"No – well we knew about Greek gods and I just assumed they were the same as the Romans. But none of us knew they had kids roaming around, especially not a whole camp filled with you guys."

Annabeth frowned, "My mother and the others seem to think it'll benefit us to keep us ignorant about the others. But if we'd known earlier I bet we wouldn't have been in this bad of a situation. We could've prepared more."

Sadie squirmed as Annabeth glared at the sky – Annabeth seemed like a cool person but she looked just as scary as Zia when she was mad. "So who's your mother?"

Annabeth's face softened and she looked at Sadie with stared at her with her bright grey eyes, "Athena, goddess of wisdom."

"I guess that makes sense. You look like you know a lot."

Annabeth smiled, "Thanks, though I don't know if I'll be much help anytime soon. Will has given me bed rest for the next 3 days. By then they might be…"

Annebeth's face turned sad as she didn't finish her statement. But Sadie knew she was talking about her friends. Although this was her first time meeting Annabeth she understood where she was coming from and she wanted to help find the others no matter what.

"Don't worry, our magicians are pretty powerful – and you demigods aren't that bad either. We will find them."

Annabeth nodded and lay back down on the bed. Sadie could tell she was tired and after saying goodbyes she left the tent.

Once outside Sadie knew it was time to tell AJ and CJ what Anubis had told her. It was night and most people were in their tents sleeping. She looked around and eventually found them returning from the continuous battle that would probably go on for a while.

"I need to tell you guys what happened when I was unconscious. First of all I was with Anubis the whole time," Sadie said to them once they found a more private location.

AJ frowned, "Did he do anything to you?"

Sadie blushed and was unsure of how to answer that she had kissed Anubis – thought technically he kissed her first and she just accepted it. But it was still something you didn't tell your boyfriends.

"I knew it! Carter told me how you two used to like each other," AJ looked more annoyed than anything while CJ looked like she was trying to hold back a smile.

"It was just a tiny kiss – but that's not the point!" AJ was glaring at the ground as if trying to figure out how to dig his way to the Land of the Dead and Sadie knew she had to change the subject, "He told me to remind you that you have to uphold your end of the deal."

This caught both of their attention. They both looked at her with identical expressions of surprise and a bit of fright.

"Is that all he told you?" CJ asked.

"Kind of, he told me offhandedly that AJ had some kind of destiny that he must finish. What deal did you guys make?" Sadie asked as the twins looked at each other. They must've been doing some sort of twin talk because they stared at each other without speaking before nodding to each other.

"Hey what were you two talking about? Are you guys in some kind of trouble?"

"We're fine," AJ said unconvincingly.

"Stop lying, what was the deal?" Sadie pressured. It must've been bad because AJ had normally told her everything if she asked him.

"One of us is supposed to die sometime soon," CJ said before AJ could speak, "It's no big deal – we're not going to let that happen."

Sadie gasped and looked at AJ, "Why didn't you tell me earlier? And what kind of deal is that? Why would Anubis make one of you die?"

AJ glared at CJ before hugging Sadie, "Not everyone can come back as reincarnates Sadie. There's a price involved with it. Our parents begged the gods – Roman and Egyptian – to allow us to come back somehow in another time so that me and CJ could be together again. We were split up when we were 10 after all – that's when I died and well CJ lived –"

"But it was a miserable life," CJ finished.

AJ gave her a sympathetic smile and continued, "With every god's permission we were allowed to come back someday but in return we promised them one of us to give up our souls. I won't let CJ do that so it'll be me – that is if we can't stop it somehow."

Sadie looked up into his dark blue eyes, "How can you stop it?"

"We've trained our hardest. I'm a lot stronger than I was in my previous life - I'm not going down without a fight."

Sadie wasn't convinced that it would be as easy as he said it would be to defy all the gods but she wanted to hope. Both him and CJ had already lived such a hard life, was it too hard for someone to give them a break.

"We'll be fine," CJ said. CJ normally sounded halfhearted with things but now Sadie could tell she really meant it.

**AN:/ I'm also currently writing a sort of companion piece to this story called, "Love is a Simple Thing", it's going to go more in depth about what happened to AJ and CJ but it mainly revolves around Cleopatra and Marc Antony. **


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